The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center is a visual journey through nursing history at Albany Medical Center from the founding of Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1897 to the accomplishments of present-day nurses. Early nurses operated under the mandate "All nursing necessary for the hospital," and their duties included cleaning, preparing special diets, and caring for patients. Nurses gave twenty-four-hour-a-day care during the flu epidemic of 1918, provided military health care during both world wars, and manned the iron lungs during the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Today, nurses at Albany Medical Center continue at the forefront of sophisticated, high-tech medical care. The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center is a visual journey through nursing history at Albany Medical Center from the founding of Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1897 to the accomplishments of present-day nurses. Early nurses operated under the mandate "All nursing necessary for the hospital," and their duties included cleaning, preparing special diets, and caring for patients. Nurses gave twenty-four-hour-a-day care during the flu epidemic of 1918, provided military health care during both world wars, and manned the iron lungs during the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Today, nurses at Albany Medical Center continue at the forefront of sophisticated, high-tech medical care. The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center is a visual journey through nursing history at Albany Medical Center from the founding of Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1897 to the accomplishments of present-day nurses. Early nurses operated under the mandate "All nursing necessary for the hospital," and their duties included cleaning, preparing special diets, and caring for patients. Nurses gave twenty-four-hour-a-day care during the flu epidemic of 1918, provided military health care during both world wars, and manned the iron lungs during the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Today, nurses at Albany Medical Center continue at the forefront of sophisticated, high-tech medical care. The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

Beginning in the 1960s, second-wave feminism inspired and influenced dramatic changes in the nursing profession. Susan Gelfand Malka argues that feminism helped end nursing's subordination to medicine and provided nurses with greater autonomy and professional status. She discusses two distinct eras in nursing history. The first extended from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, when feminism seemed to belittle the occupation in its analysis of gender subordination but also fueled nursing leaders' drive for greater authority and independence. The second era began in the mid-1980s, when feminism grounded in the ethics of care appealed to a much broader group of caregivers and was incorporated into nursing education. While nurses accepted aspects of feminism, they did not necessarily identify as feminists. Nonetheless, they used, passed on, and developed feminist ideas that brought about nursing school curricula changes and the increase in self-directed and specialized roles available to caregivers in the twenty-first century.

For some time now, the professional and general public in the Czech Republic have been receiving incomplete and often biased information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Leading European and world authorities – the World Health Organization (WHO), the Council of Europe, European research CAMbrella funded by the European Commission, European network EUROCAM, are all entirely in favour of CAM, and without exception recommend CAM research and integration into the routine care. The contradiction between 'here and there' is literally explosive. The 'world' is entirely elsewhere. Respective details are given in the information publication 'Alternative Medicine (CAM) in the World', published by the Professional Chamber Sanator – the Union of Biotronicists of Josef Zezulka. Our Professional Chamber has recently become a member of ANME – Association for Natural Medicine in Europe, EUAA – European Ayurveda Association and joined the European Commission’s EU Health Policy Platform. We hope that our activities will contribute to the education of the professional public in the realm of CAM. Tomáš Pfeiffer Director of the Professional Chamber Sanator – the Union of Biotronicists of Josef Zezulka www.sanator.cz/en