In the early days on the Colorado frontier, women took care of family and neighbors because accepting that were all in this together was the only realistic survival strategyon the high plains, along the Front Range, in the mountain towns, and on the Western Slope. As dangerous occupations became fundamental to Colorados economy, if they were injured or got sick there was no one to care for the young men who worked as miners, steel workers, cowboys, and railroad construction workers in remote parts of Colorado. So physicians, surgeons, nurses, Catholic Sisters, Reform and Orthodox Jews, Protestants, and other humanitarians established hospitals andwhen Colorado became a mecca for people with tuberculosissanatoriums. Those pioneers and the communities they served created our community-based humanitarian healthcare tradition. These stories about our Wild West heritage honor the legacy of our 19th-century healthcare pioneers and will inspire and entertain 21st-century readers. Because we can be inspired only if we understand the factsand because facts are more likely to be understood when presented in contextthis chronology includes national and international developments that establish an indispensable frame of reference for understanding how our pioneers created the local-community-based healthcare system that weve inherited.

Almost from its founding in 1871, Colorado Springs has been a city filled with health-seeking citizens. Community-minded progressive people built a thriving town at the foot of Pikes Peak. With the leadership of two prominent Methodist women, devout and progressive women of the city and the Pikes Peak region established Deaconess Hospital with a staff of Deaconess Nurses and student nurses in training, primarily caring for citizens with medical, surgical, and child bearing health concerns. Interrelated in this history is the impact of the social, community, environment technology, economy, evolving nursing education standards and health care realities in the story of Deaconess Training School, which became Beth-El School of Nursing at Beth-El Hospital. The city of Colorado Springs bought the hospital in 1943 and renamed it Memorial Hospital. In 1997, Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences merged with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The dedicated community of women and alumni tells their stories through their recorded memories, newsletters, and documents. The school of nursing has struggled, and ultimately thrived, through the ever-present support and appreciation of the people of the Pikes Peak region. We are Beth-El Nurses: A Heritage of Caring at the Foot of Pikes Peak is our passionate community endeavor.

Names and telephone numbers of providers of health insurance, health information, health care regulations, public health and consumer advocacy.