A Call to Arms
The Struggle for Nursing Education,
Public
Health; World War I |
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National Organization
of
Public Health Nursing
The rapid growth of new community health groups at the turn of the century left the developing
field lacking in standards for the educational preparation of public health nurses and the
assurance of quality patient services. Under ANA and the National League of Nursing
Education's (NLNE's) leadership, a conference of representatives from the nation's community
health agencies was convened at the 1912 ANA convention. Discussion in this meeting led to the
establishment at the National Organization of Public Health Nursing (NOPHN).
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Speaking of the dismal state of nursing education, M. Adelaide
Nutting noted that students
"... are working at least nine hours daily, ... night
duty becomes twelve hours ... Today the majority of training schools ... have not one paid
instructor. A large number of these do not ... have a library or books."
M. Adelaide Nutting, Educational Status of Nursing (1912), p. 29 |
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In 1913, ANA and the American Red
Cross Nursing Service developed a plan that took public health nursing to rural communities.
From Alaska to the Panama Canal Zone, Red Cross nurses entered remote communities to bring
nursing care and health education.
"The common good for which we strive can be stated in
six words -- better schools, better nurses, better service."
Isabel McIsaac
(1912),
ANA Interstate Secretary Report
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"Do not let it go down in history
that when the young men of our country were called into service in defense of democracy ... the
nurses held back ... because they shirk from the hardships of war service."
Sophia Palmer (editor), AJN (1918), pp. 283-287
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"There are three great forms of
service open to American nurses today ... We must have nurses for teachers ... We must have
nurses for our wounded men in France ... and we must maintain our home defenses "
Mary Beard, RN, President, NOPHN, Twenty-first Annual ANA Convention,
AJN (1918), p. 967 |
Copyright 1996 American Nurses
Association, 600 Maryland Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20024-2571
All rights reserved. No reproduction without permission of
ANA. |
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