Nebraska Nursing Education During World War II

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URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1992NursingEd.pdf Date: 1/20/2015 Article Summary: One aspect of the wartime government’s efforts to draw more women into the workforce was the federal government’s increasing participation in nursing education. Cataloging Information: Names: Evelyn Lindgren Carlson, Eugene McAuliffe, Charlotte Burgess, Thomas Parran, Etta Lubberts, Eileen Weiss, Dwight Griswold, Judith Whitaker, Sister M Fulgentia, Lucile Petry, C W M Poynter, Sister M Livina, Hazel Hinds, Frances Payne Bolton, Molly Parnis, Lulu Wolf, Robert G Simmons, P D Widiner, Blanche Graves, Sally Jeffries, Margaret Strawser Keywords: Labor-Federal Security Appropriation Act of 1942; US Public Health Service; Nurses’ Training Act of 1943 (Bolton Act); US Cadet Nurse Corps; Nebraska State Nurses’ Association; Bureau of Education and Registration for Nurses; Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital (Omaha); University of Nebraska School of Nursing; Legislative Committee of the Nebraska State Nursing Association; Lincoln General Hospital; St Elizabeth Hospital; Nebraska Methodist School of Nursing; Creighton St Joseph’s; Lincoln General Hospital; RN—Serving All Mankind (film); US Public Health Service; St Catherine’s Hospital School of Nursing of Creighton University; University of Nebraska Medical School; Cadet Nurse Corps; Army Nurse Corps (ANC), National Defense Housing Act of 1940 (Lanham Act); National Japanese Student Relocation Council; National Nursing Council for War Service; Bureau of Indian Affairs; Veterans Administration’, Federal Nurse Traineeship Program; Special Consultive Group on Nursing Photographs / Images: Evelyn Lindgren Carlson in her US Cadet Nurse Corps uniform 1945; Graduation Program, Immanuel Hospital School of Nursing, February 20, 1948; US Cadet Nurse Corps brochure excerpts; Charlotte Burgess; Dr C W M Poynter; St Catherine’s Hospital nurses’ home unit, Omaha; Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital nursing school, Omaha; Army hospital brochure NEBRASKA NURSING EDUCATION DURING WORLD WAR II By Michele L. Fagan "These are troubled times, fearful schools meeting the program's stan ment appropriation implicitly recog times, yetitis an exciting and exhilarat dards. Learning from the problems nized the profession's importance. ing period," the president of the Ne that arose during attempts to rapidly However, the act's requirements braska State Nurses' Association told enlarge the student nurse population worried some educators who feared other members after the United States under the Labor-Federal Security that the proposed shorter or entered World War II. These words Appropriation Act, the originators of accelerated curriculum would turn out must have struck home for adminis the Bolton Act sought to streamline many half-educated nurses and jeopar trators of Nebraska's nursing schools and centralize the recruitment efforts dize hard-won professional gains. as federal involvement in nursing by working closely with state boards of Only a few years earlier during the education grew in response to the war nursing. The U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps Depression hospitals began to employ time crisis. 1 produced enough students to cover RNs on the wards and nursing students Even before December 1941 civilian needs without disrupting the spent more time in the classroom. national nursing organizations, govern schools. Omaha and Lincoln schools of Before that hospitals had depended ment agencies, and the public feared nursing exemplify the increasing almost entirely on nursing students for that the United States faced a critical federal participation in nursing educa patient care. Hospitals, in fact, shortage of registered nurses (RNs) to tion that was another aspect ofthe war traditionally had established nursing cover the rapidly growing civilian and time government's efforts to draw more schools to provide cheap labor while military health care needs.2 Shortly women into the workforce. the graduate nurses usually entered before the war many schools started Congress made its first appropria the private duty field. 6 The wartime expanding anyway as more people, tion to fund nursing education in July demands for more students and a aided by the development of health 1941, five months before the Japanese shorter training period seemed to be insurance, public health programs, and attack on Pearl Harbor. The Labor forcing hospitals and schools to return social security benefits, began to enter Federal Security Appropriation Act of to the recent past when students did hospitals for care instead of being 1942 made $1.2 million available to most of the nursing. The president of treated at home.3 In response to this increase nursing school enrollments, to the Nebraska State Nurses' Association need Congress in July 1941 passed the provide refresher courses for inactive alluded to this concern when she wrote Labor-Federal Security Appropriation graduates, and to support post to the director of the state's Bureau of Act of 1942 to fund nursing education graduate education in special fields. 4 Education and Registration for Nurses and bring inactive registered nurses Federal funds enabled school adminis requesting that each school increase back to work. The U.S. Public Health trators to offer individual scholarships the size and number of its classes to Service administered this act, working for enrollment costs and subsistence to meet the emergency without "sacrific with individual schools to attract new qualified but financially strapped ing the quality of its educational nursing students. When the legislation students. Other clauses of the act pro program."7 did not produce the hoped for num vided for hiring more instructors, add Some Nebraska nursing educators bers, Congress passed the Nurses' ing certain types of facilities, and supported the accelerated class Training Act of 1943 (Bolton Act) that affiliating with other schools or groups schedule or at least complied willingly. called for a nation-wide uniformed for specialized training. The act did not Eugene McAuliffe, the vice-president corps of nursing students based in subsidize the construction of new of Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital buildings, although its provisions could (Omaha), strongly disapproved of the be stretched to include "securing shorter training period and inter Michele L. Fagan is an archivistllibrarian, additional dormitories."5 ference from the federal government, now head of the Special Collections Depart The federal funding delighted many but he concluded that the change was ment, Memphis (Tennessee) State University. nursing leaders because the govern probably inevitable since the Univer 126 Nursing Education sity of Nebraska School of Nursing minute changes, alterations of family seemed committed to it.8 plans, all affect prospective students."13 Although the federal government In August 1942, the Lincoln General pressed for a thirty-month course, Hospital director of nurses learned most state boards ofnursing, including that because she estimated only one Nebraska's, required thirty-six months student more in the fall, "you would not of schooling. In January 1942 Charlotte be eligible to receive aid this coming Burgess, director of the University of year unless you admit a February class, Nebraska School of Nursing, told and one which was larger than the 1941 Thomas Parran, U.S. Surgeon General, class." However, this incoming class that "the Lieutenant Governor has would not be eligible for the small assist informed us that unless our present law ance available until January 1943.0 is amended the three-year program Expansion in 1940 had hurt Lincoln must be adhered to. The Legislative General. A new addition to the hospital Committee of the Nebraska State that year caused the school to accept Nursing Association will present to the one of its largest classes to care for the state Legislature, in the near future, increased number of patients. The either a recommendation for shorten Public Health Service used this ing the three-year program for the extraordinarily high figure as the base Duration, or if necessary, an amend for its calculations and expected Lin ment of our present law."9 Eventually coln General to keep increasing.14 The the need to accelerate obliged nursing University of Nebraska School of schools to restructure their curriculum. Nursing faced a similar situation. The administrators of the Omaha Charlotte Burgess, director of nurs and Lincoln schools who applied for ing, understood that since the Septem federal funds under the Labor-Federal ber 1942 class was only one person Security Appropriation Act had to larger than the September 1941 class,

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