A historical review of nursing’s contributions to the military, as well as the effects of war on the nurses themselves, will be the topic of a conference sponsored by the Shepherd University Department of Nursing Education on Friday, Apr. 21, from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. in Erma Ora Byrd Hall. Cost for the conference is $80 and will provide nursing continuing education credit. For an extra fee, continuing education units through Shepherd are also available.

Shepherdstown’s location serves as the starting point for understanding the effect of combat on the development of modern nursing. At the time of the Civil War, there was no organized nursing profession. Dr. Barbara Mann Wall, the Thomas A. Saunders III Professor of in Nursing at the University of Virginia School of Nursing will talk about who served as nurses in the Civil War.

Modern warfare and the science of treating combat wounded changed nursing care in Vietnam. Dr. Diane Corcoran, a health care consultant and retired Army nurse who served in Vietnam and earned a Bronze Star and Legion of Merit, will discuss nursing in Vietnam and how her experiences shaped her study of near-death experiences. Dr. Elizabeth Scannell-Desch, associate dean for baccalaureate programs at Rutgers University and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, will make a presentation of her research on the experiences of military nurses in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2003-2011.

For more information, visit www.shepherd.edu/nursing/nursing-announcements.