LKLP Site Visit

Spring is slowly but surely arriving in Kentucky and that means site visits. This week we enjoyed spending a day with our GCDFs and their colleagues at LKLP. The morning consisted of a training on how we can help prepare our clients for interviews. After a delicious pot luck luncheon, we headed to Leslie County to learn more about the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing.

As many of you know, the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery was started in 1939 by the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) as a part of its demonstration project in the care of the mother and child in rural areas of Kentucky. From the beginning, Founder Mary Breckinridge viewed nurse-midwifery as central to health care. When FNS began using nurse-midwives in the United States in 1925, it was able to secure a qualified staff in only two ways, by sending the American nurses to Great Britain for graduate training or by enlisting British nurses already qualified as midwives. In the early years, the FNS offered scholarships to American nurses to go to Great Britain for training in nurse-midwifery, and recruited British nurse-midwives.

If you have not had a chance, plan a visit to Leslie county and learn more about FNS - a true Kentucky gem. Students still come from around the country for nurse training. The history is fascinating and grounds are absolutely beautiful. A bed and breakfast will be opening soon in Mary Breckinridge's former home.