"Missing in Action" in Psychiatric Nursing History: The Role of Chief Nurse Adele S. Poston and Her Band of Nurses During World War I.

This is the first nursing journal article to introduce the pioneering work of American psychiatric nurse leader, Adele S. Poston. Poston supervised a team of nurses as they cared for soldiers serving with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I in France. Poston and her nurses worked in the first American specialized neuropsychiatric hospital in a war. The soldiers they treated primarily had functional nervous disorders described at that time as "shell shock" or "war neuroses." The traumatized officers and enlisted men were considered capable of being cured and returned to active duty based on research done by American psychiatrists among British troops during the first 3 years of the war. The story of Poston's career prior, during, and after the war and her work with other nurses during a global war are significant in psychiatric nursing history. Bringing this hitherto missing piece of psychiatric and nursing history into the light gives us a unique opportunity to recognize Poston and the nurses who served with her, even as today we recognize the nurses who serve during the global COVID-19 pandemic. [Journal of Psychosocial and Mental Health Services, 59(6), 37-47.].