Gisela Johanna Ida von Poswik (June 19, 1875 – October 2, 1940) was a German-born American nurse and physician and an early specialist in radiology.
Gisela von Poswik | |
|---|---|
 Gisela von Poswik, from a 1911 yearbook. | |
| Born | Gisela Johanna Ida von Poswik June 19, 1875 |
| Died | October 2, 1940 Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Nurse, physician, radiologist |
Early life
editGisela von Poswik was born in 1875, in Naumburg, Germany, the daughter of Count Jacobus Napoleon von Poswik and Maria Johanna Lieskau von Poswik.[1] She earned a nursing certificate from the Lankenau Hospital of Philadelphia in 1903.[2] In 1911, she earned a medical degree at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.[3][4]
Career
editVon Poswik served in administrative roles at hospitals in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. She was superintendent of a sanitarium in White Haven, Pennsylvania.[5] In a 1907 article for the American Journal of Nursing, she dispensed advice to nurses, including "Never share a bed with your patient."[6] Other scholarly publications by von Poswik included "The Value of the Roentgen Diagnosis, for the General Practitioner, in Gastro-Intestinal Diseases" (1916).[7] She presented a paper titled "The Value of X-Ray Treatment in Cases of Pyorrhea" at a meeting of the Scranton Dental Association in 1922.[8]
She was the first woman member of the American Roentgen Ray Society, read a paper at the Third International Congress of Radiology in Paris in 1931,[9] and was a member of the American Medical Association of Vienna.[10] From 1916 to 1918, she was chief "roentgenologist" (radiologist) at Hahnemann Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania.[11] Her obituary in The New York Times noted that "she was the first woman physician in the United States to have her own x-ray equipment."[3] She was the founding president of the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association.[2]
Personal life
editGisela von Poswik became a United States citizen in 1919.[12] She died in 1940 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at age 65.[2][3] A scrapbook of von Poswik's creation, including clippings, notes and photographs, is in the collection of Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections.[13]
References
edit- ^ "Dr. Von Poswik is Dead Following Lengthy Illness". The Times-Tribune. 1940-10-02. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Obituaries". The American Journal of Nursing. 40 (11): 1307. 1940. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3414683.
- ^ a b c "Dr. Gisela von Poswik; First Woman Physician in U.S. to Have Own X-Ray Equipment". The New York Times. 1940-10-03. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
- ^ Scalpel : the 1911 yearbook of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, page 70. via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Woman Specialist Died at Scranton". Standard-Speaker. 1940-10-03. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Poswik, Gisela Von (February 1907). "A Word to the Wise". American Journal of Nursing. 7 (5): 357–358. ISSN 0002-936X.
- ^ Association, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania Alumnae (1916). Transactions of the ... Annual Meeting of the Alumnae Association of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. The Association. pp. 89–92.
- ^ "Value of X-Ray Treatment is Discussed by Dr. Von Poswik". The Times-Tribune. 1922-04-25. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Will Read Paper". The Tribune. 1931-07-15. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "American Medical Association of Vienna". Radiology. 18 (1): 156. 1932-01-01. doi:10.1148/18.1.156a. ISSN 0033-8419.
- ^ Defense, United States Council of National (1918). Census of women physicians, Nov. 11, 1918. American Women's Hospitals. p. 99.
- ^ "Dr. Von Poswik, Scranton, Dies". The Wilkes-Barre Record. 1940-10-03. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-16 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "MCPHU Archive & Special Collections: Collection Descriptions, Accessions". Retrieved 2020-09-17.
