UNITING THE PAST AND THE FUTURE IN PUBLIC-HEALTH NURSING - THE MICHIGAN ORAL-HISTORY PROJECT

In 1987 a group of Michigan public health nurses recognized the need t o capture the richness of the lives of renowned public health leaders by collecting and preserving their oral histories. With the assistance of the Bentley Collection at the University of Michigan, the Michigan Oral History Project found a home. In this paper, the process of desi gning and implementing the oral history project is described within th e framework of McBride's Orchestrating the Stages of a Career, adapted from the Dalton/Thompson/Price career development model. The steps in selecting interviewers and leaders, conducting the interviews, and ke eping track of the completed work are outlined. Finally, the early res ults and potential uses for the collected data are discussed. This pro ject has special signficance in this year for the celebration of the c entennial of public health nursing.