lSSN 1049-2259
Winter 2002 Vo l. IS No .1
HrSTORY AND THE I-lILL:
A NURSE HIsTORIAN
GOES TO WASHINGTON By CYNTT-llA CONNOLLY, RN, PrrD When I Iin;l embarked on my postdoctoral work at the Program in the History of Public Health and Medicine at Columbia Un iversity' Mai lman School of Publi.: Health, I assumed 1 would be taking several health policy courses. I designed my fellowship at Columbia to learn m re about the way in which historical methodology could be used as a fnunework for generating more meani ngful contemporary health and social weI fare policy . T hus, learning more about the war! of po licy -mak ing seemed essentia l.
Center for The Study of The History of ur UNIVE.RSrll 01 Pl:.N SYLV NtA SCHOOL OF NlTRSI
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Al though there were many cour es at Colum bia that interested me, one day ( realized thaI w hat 1 really needed to do was a po licy "c linical." I had spent years as a pediatric nur e educator, tcaching _ludenls that the be t way to master nursing was to inte grate their d inical practicum into classroom theory. Once I thought about it, I wonde red why the same approac h didn't apply to studyi ng the interconnections between policy, politics, and history. r YII !hia r mlllu /l .l' and ! h ~ late SI' II. PU LI I We l/,!",.,,: U nfortunately, T didn't oll n es.\' of I hl' a ullw r 2UU l Pho !o have any Washington connec tions, but before I cou ld lose my nerve I wr tc to the senator whose political phi losophy f it most d oseJy with my own, Paul We ll stone [D-Minnesota l. fn my letter. I expressed interest in trading my Jabor, passion for children's health, and more than 20 year' experience as a pediatric nurse, ed ucator. and nurse prac tit ioner , fo r the opportunity t work on Capitol Hill. I didn't really expect to hear back, but my Jetter arrived just at the time Senator lim Jeffords switched parties and tlle balance of power shifted from Republican to Democrat. As a resu lt, the Demo ml ie age nda was newly energi zed. By chance, Senator Wellstone needed a fe ll w, and I was able to talk my way in the door. I wrangled the opportunity to spend six mo nt hs in the Senator' office preparing legislative briefs and assisting him and IUs staffers on issues related to health care and clUtd welfare, whi le learn ing about the interconnections between history and policy. Sinee I occasionally watch C-Span and keep up with current events, 1 felt pretty confident that 1 had a basic understanding of Was hi ngton. B y, was I wrong! First, 1 was shocked to learn that the average age of a House staffer is ap proximate ly 27 and for a Senate staffer it is about 32 . At 43, I felt old! I was Ule only fillow I knew who didn't con ider Watergate or even the Reagan era to be ancient history. (conlin lled
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