Joeann Guthrey Taylor Fraser: Trailblazing Nurse in a New Profession

Abstract

This historical vignette describes the career of Joeann Guthrey Taylor Fraser. Her story begins as she cleans animal cages and sweeps floors in the research labs at Jefferson Medical College. As a nursing student at Jefferson she is fascinated by cardiac surgery and accepts the opportunity to learn to operate the heart-lung machine. Esteemed cardiac surgeons, Dr. John H. Gibbon, Jr. and Dr. John Y. Templeton III guide her to become one of the first perfusionists in the United States.