This month's cover features early 20th-century scenes from the Henry Street Settlement in New York City. These photos document nursing's early role in advancing health in the community. Settlement nurses visited poor city residents, many of whom were immigrants living in tenement housing, treating illnesses and providing health education.

This month's cover features early 20th-century scenes from the Henry Street Settlement in New York City. Photos (from left): Henry Street Settlement; Bettmann / Contributor; AJN archives; the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

The Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1893 by nursing pioneer Lillian Wald (who coined the term "public health nurse," founded the Visiting Nurse Service of New York and the National Organization for Public Health Nursing, and introduced the concept of school nursing, among numerous achievements). The Settlement provided more than just medical care-it offered classes and vocational training, worked to improve squalid living conditions, and even established one of the first local playgrounds for children.

Though Wald's model of nursing initially flourished, it eventually lost ground in favor of hospital and physician-centric models. But her ideas may offer routes toward improving the current state of U.S. health care. In this month's Special Feature, Patricia Pittman calls for leaning on and expanding the Wald model as a means to achieve health equity. To learn more about what this means for the profession, read "Rising to the Challenge: Re-Embracing the Wald Model of Nursing" in this issue.-Diane Szulecki, editor