History Center Events
Fall 2024 Nursing History Forums
Sept. 24, 2024
12 pm - 1 pm (ET) on Zoom
"Bait, Switch, and Sue: Filipino Nurses’ Solidarity against Exploitative International Recruitment Practices, 2005-2009"
Andre Rosario, PhD, RN
By 2007, international nurse recruitment had ballooned into an industry, with more than 200 companies recruiting nurses from other countries to work in the U.S. As these companies grew in number, they also grew in political power. As a historical case study, this presentation focuses on the “Sentosa 27++,” a group of nurses recruited from the Philippines in 2005-2006 to work for a health-care company on Long Island, NY. Put in substandard housing, paid less than their U.S. counterparts, and overworked, these nurses decided to resign and break their contracts early. The company retaliated, bringing about civil, criminal, and administrative charges against the Sentosa nurses.
The Philippine Nurses Association of America joined with other Filipino organizations to raise funds and support the Sentosa nurses. But the significance of their story lies not just in the Filipino community’s solidarity and perseverance. This presentation argues that it marks a concerning shift in international nurse recruitment. By the 2000s, migrant nurses found themselves vulnerable to the interests of not just a few deceptive or exploitative bosses, but to an increasingly powerful recruitment industry.
Andre A. Rosario, Ph
D, RN, is a historian, nurse scientist, and Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Rutgers University School of Nursing. He studies the history of Filipino nurse migration to the U.S., Filipino immigrant nurses’ political organizing, and nursing workforce policy related to internationally-educated nurses. He received a PhD in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was affiliated with the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing. His work has been supported by Penn’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration and the American Association for the History of Nursing.
Oct. 29, 2024 at 12 p.m. (virtual) - Cory Ellen Gatrall, PhD, MFA, RN
Dec. 3, 2024 at 12 p.m. (in person) - Luciana Luchesi, PhD, RN
For a recording of any of these talks, please contact the Bjoring Center's program manager.
"Unearthing Black Midwifery Stories in Virginia" by Linda Janet Holmes, recipient of the Bjoring Center's 2024 Agnes Dillon Randolph Award (April 2024)
"Neither the Colonizer Nor the Colonized: Thai Nursing Students in the Philippines and New England, 1920-1931" by Christine N. Peralta, PhD, recipient of the Bjoring Center's 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship (March 2024)
“Filling the Unforgiving Minute with Sixty Seconds’ Worth of Distance Run: Barbara Fassbinder, Nursing, and AIDS in the U.S., 1986-1991” by Karissa Haugeberg, PhD (February 2024)
"Narrating a Life of Care: Hindsight and Challenges of Interpretation in the Study of Religion and Health" by Angela Xia, PhD candidate in religious studies, recipient of the Bjoring Center's 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship (November 2023)
"Gay Nurses/Straight Health Care: Toward a Queer History of Nursing" by Jess Dillard-Wright, PhD, MA, RN, CNM, recipient of the Barbara Brodie Nursing History Fellowship (November 2023)
"Hospital City, Health Care Nation: Race, Capital, and the Costs of American Health Care" by Guian McKee, PhD (September 2023)
"History and Memory of Filipino Nurses in U.S. Health-Care Delivery" by Catherine Ceniza Choy, PhD, recipient of the 2023 Agnes Dillon Randolph Award (April 2023)
"Medicine of Care: Oral History of Nurse Practitioners in New York State" by Morag Martin, PhD (March 2023)
"Black Nurses’ Silent Struggle to Integrate Hospital Nursing in the North, 1950-1970" by Hafeeza Anchrum, PhD, RN (Nov. 2022)
"Understanding the Experiences of Male Nurse Practitioners, 1980 to Present" by Marcus D. Henderson, MSN, RN (Oct. 2022)
"A Virtual Roundtable on the History of Black Midwives" with Wangui Muigai, PhD; Michelle Drew, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP-C, C-EFM; and Gertrude Fraser, PhD (Feb. 2022). Download the History of Black Midwives Roundtable transcript.
Program: "Ancient Wisdom, Resistance and Reclamation: The Historical Contributions of African and African American Midwives 1619 to the Present" - by Michelle Drew, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP-C, C-EFM
"Trust, Training, and Tradition: Black Midwifery in the Early 20th Century" - by Wangui Muigai, PhD
"African American Doulas: Carrying on the Tradition, Navigating Spaces of Care and Exploitation" - by Gertrude J. Fraser, PhD
Black Midwives: A History Forum
