Nurse s Role In The Tuskegee Syphilis Trial
Tuskegee Syphilis Trial Introduction
In 1932 the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), in conjunction with the Tuskegee Institute, of
Macon County Alabama, initiated a study to record the natural course of untreated syphilis in black
males. According to the Center for Disease Control, the study involved 600 black men, among
whom 399 had the disease, and 201 did not, but were used as controls. Participants were under the
impression that they were being treated for bad blood , which was how researchers described their
condition. To the uneducated, impoverished, and vulnerable black men, this appeared to be ideal,
given that their participation earned them, free meals, medical examinations, and burial insurance.
Unfortunately, what they did not ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
As a nurse, she had an obligation to provide the best medical care for the sick, while minimizing
all potential harms, but her participation in the study gained her the reputation of a nurse who
betrayed her profession. From another point of view, Nurse Rivers has also been as much of a
victim as the participants of the study, due to both gender and race. In a patriarchal society
dominated by whites, to an extent, she was powerless. There would have been dire
consequences for a negro, especially a woman to challenge the doctor with whom she worked.
According the Darlene Clark Hines, the doctor not only worked for the government, but was
also a white male, which made him superior by virtue of race and gender. As a loyal employee,
Nurse River always did as she was told, and knew that a nurse should not question orders given
by doctors. Nurse Rivers was described as an upwardly mobile woman, who had adopted the
values and attitudes of middle class culture, which suggests that class identity shaped her
professional life. At the time, it was difficult to find a job, given the great economic depression
in America. Moreover, having lost her job with the Alabama State health department, Nurse
Rivers was more than happy work as a public health nurse. Through hard work, she achieved her
goal of entering the middle class arena and having a job helped her to maintain her position. It
was crucial as a black nurse struggling for a place in a profession dominated by whites, to
cooperate with her superiors. Similarly, by forging relations with her white colleagues, she
improved her status as a black professional working in the world of white medicine. Clearly, hard
times, economic austerity and upward mobility were influential factors, and as stated by James
Jones, race, professional hierarchies, class, and gender all played distinct and
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