Kenny, Elizabeth

Kenny, Elizabeth (1886-1952), also known as Sister Kenny, Australian nurse, who devised methods for treating poliomyelitis by stimulating and re-educating the affected muscles rather than immobilizing patients with splints and casts. Born in Warialda, New South Wales, and without formal medical training, Kenny first succeeded, as a country nurse, in treating the early stages of polio. In 1933 she established a clinic at Townsville, Queensland. In the early 1940s she lectured in the United States, often arousing opposition, but she soon gained the support of the American Medical Association. The Elizabeth Kenny Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was set up in 1943 to train nurses and physiotherapists in her methods.