On this Web site, you will discover the women who have changed the face of medicine presented for you by the National Library of Medicine. You have a couple options to choose from when browsing this site. Let’s go!
First, you can click the womens’ photos at the top of the page and learn about each woman individually. You can also get to the same information by clicking into the Physician’s section, where you will also find a search engine that will allow you to search the physicians by location, ethnicity, career options, medical field, as well as, a keyword search. You will also find an alphabetical index of the physicians near the bottom of the page.
Explore the Exhibition – This section is divided into five areas. They are: Introduction, Setting Their Sights, Making Their Mark, Changing Medicine and last, but not least, Videos.
The Introduction is basically just a brief intro to each of the sections and it explains what you’ll find there. You’ll also find the Videos in the middle of the Introduction page. It was really interesting to listen to these women talk about their professions, what they’ve faced and how they feel they are making a difference.
Setting Their Sights – In the mid-1800s, women fought to be allowed to go to medical school and ever since their admittance, they have faced struggles to be accepted as practitioners. Here you will learn about their triumphs over the stumbling blocks placed in their way as they fought for their place in medicine.
Making Their Mark – Here you will learn how women brought new perspective to the medical field. Women focused on caring for communities, the social and economic costs of medicines, helping others get medical educations and even making discoveries that have changed the way medicine was thought of and applied. I really enjoyed reading the Making Discoveries portion of this section. It is really all about the discoveries, changes and practices that women have helped establish. Some of them have videos that go along with them, some of them have interactive exhibits and they are all very interesting!
Changing Medicine, Changing Lives – This section is broken up into three parts: Caring for People, Transforming the Profession and Taking the Lead. You will learn here about how women in the medical profession have shaped the way we receive care, as well as, how they’ve balanced their professional and personal lives and instituted changes that overcome the stumbling blocks they have faced in their field. Taking the Lead sums up what the site is about and it shows a glimpse into the future. More and more women are at the top of their fields, influencing change and helping shape how things are done!
I was truly amazed by the profiles of doctors on this site. I also really enjoyed reading about the women from the 1800s who fought to get their foot in the door of medicine. It is really incredible when you stop to think about how far they’ve come since then. Check it out!
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/
~ Amanda