America's Demand
for Health
Care Grows |
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Americans' quest for health
services stemmed from their belief in the powers of medical science, the availability of
private insurance, and the needs of the "Baby Boom" generation. From 1946 to 1964, 78 million
infants were born in the American "BABY BOOM."
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Collective Bargaining
In spite of severe nursing shortages in the 1950s,
hospital administrators continued to pay nurses inadequate salaries. Addressing this issue, ANA
leaders began to discuss the use of collective bargaining techniques to obtain the salaries and
working conditions that the nurses needed. As a result of collective bargaining, "Twenty-six state associations indicated general salary increases
or other improvements in employment conditions ..."
"Economic Security Program in 1952," AJN (April 1953), p. 423
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Elizabeth Porter, Trailblazer of Economic and General Welfare
Program: "We state unequivocally our main obligation
[is] to patients. The difficulties we get into, however, are that this obligation to patients is
frequently regarded mistakenly as the reason why nurses should not pursue their rights as
Americans to a standard of living and working conditions consistent with their professional
status."
Elizabeth K. Porter, EdD., RN, ANA President (1950-1954); Ohio Nurses Association
President (1958 - 1960); in "Ohio Nurses Review," vol. 70, #6 (November/December 1995), p.
7
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Polio Epidemics
Polio outbreaks in the 1940s and 1950s required nurses educated in the management of both the
acute and rehabilitative phases of the disease. In 1951, the ANA, the National Foundation of
Infantile Paralysis and the American Red Cross developed a volunteer, mobile, polio nurse
specialty group that served in communities during polio epidemics.
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ANA's Code for the Professional Nurse
(1950)
"Every professional nurse has an ethical and
professional duty, not only to give the best nursing care possible, but also to maintain the
standards of the profession ... The future of the nursing profession depends on maintenance of
high professional standards ..."
ANA House of Delegates, AJN (July 1958), p. 975
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Post-War Nursing
Shortages
Declining enrollments in nursing schools and the loss of graduates through marriage, at a time
when hospitals were admitting millions of patients every day, led to a critical nursing shortage.
(In 1952 alone, 19 million patients a day were being admitted to hospitals.) As a result, hospitals
employed nurses' aides and other auxiliary personnel, changing the role of the nurse from
provider of direct patient care to supervisor and administrator.
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Health Rights for All
ANA advocates that "Health and welfare programs
supported by tax funds should promote and protect the physical, mental, and social well-being of
all citizens regardless of race, creed, color or national origin."
Statement of Principles, ANA Board of Directors, 1956
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ANA Supports Research in
Nursing "... the rapidity of change in
the social and health fieldshas intensified the need for comprehensive planning to discover new
nursing knowledge ... and todevise new ways of improving nursing service."
Research in Nursing -- Philosophy and Plan of Action, AJN (May 1952), p.
601
American Nurses Foundation
...was established in 1955 to conduct research, provide research grants, and publish scientific
work. |
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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