Phoebe Ann Pollitt

" African american and Cherokee Nurses in Appalachia" by Phoebe Ann Pollitt is a well done study of the conditions for minority groups in Appalachia in relation to their health care needs and options for care. I found this study both intriguing for the telling of hardships ( transportation, education, political, etc) overcome by the nurses and sad that the injustice for the right of good health care went on for so long. I would recommend this book to all health care providers as we still fight for a fair and equitable health care system today.… (meer)

This excellent document is well researched and organized and is suitable for scholarly citation. I came to it as a general (though motivated) reader and found Part I, the 50-page “Overview of Segregated Health Care in Appalachia,” to be interesting and informative, particularly regarding the surprising numbers of minorities in Appalachia, the relative lack of health care by and for them, and its low quality where it did exist ... until the passage of the Civil Rights Act (which provided access) and Medicare and Medicaid (which provided funding).

I found Part II, “History of {the six} Individual {Appalachian} States and the Qualla Boundary,” to be documentary by intention and repetitive by necessity, and thus less interesting to read through. An exception was the section on the Qualla Boundary (the sovereign land, in North Carolina, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians -- the tribe remaining after the rest were forced in the 1830s to what is now Oklahoma) -- because I know relatively little on that topic and always welcome more info.… (meer)

This book is exactly what it's title says: an overview of minority nurses in various Appalachian counties. The focus of the book was on African American nurses, nursing schools and hospitals; the portions on the Eastern Band Cherokee seemed almost like an afterthought but were some of the most interesting portions. Sections of the book were very dry but did provide important background for understanding the climate of the times. I am a public health nurse and found the stories about various creative public health initiatives and maternal child health outreaches the most interesting. An important look at how unequal healthcare was until so very recently.… (meer)