Today's picture is from the early 1900's, and is shows a Nurse/Midwife who has just delivered a baby. The mother is in the bed on the right. As I look through old pictures, it appears that midwives were very common, and in fact probably more common that doctors. I wonder when the tradition of midwifes stopped?
I am willing to bet that the tradition of nurses having a larger role as primary care providers will increase. I believe our population is aging faster than we can make new doctors, and hence more responsibility will be put on nurse practitioners.