Article ID: CBB001024903

The American Nursing Shortage during World War I: The Debate over the Use of Nurses' Aids (2010)

unapi

Telford, Jennifer Casavant (Author)


Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine
Volume: 27
Pages: 85--99


Publication Date: 2010
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: “New Scholarship in Nursing History”
Language: English

This article explores the history of the creation of the Army and Navy Female Nurse Corps and the debate that ensued between American nursing leaders Jane Delano, director of the Red Cross Nursing Service, M. Adelaide Nutting, president of the American Federation of Nurses, and Annie Goodrich, dean of the Army School of Nursing, over the use of untrained nurses' aids to offset the nursing shortage that resulted from the United States entry into the Great War in 1917. The recruitment of minimally or untrained nurses' aids to offset the nursing shortage of the World War I era was a logical solution for American nursing leaders who had to meet the needs for nursing personnel. The exclusion of trained African American nurses, however, was a gross oversight on the part of these leaders. Whether or not this action compromised the status of nursing as a profession is still a matter of interest. Moreover, the debate about the delivery of care by unlicensed personnel continues.

...More
Included in

Article Boschma, Geertje; Grypma, Sonya (2010) New Scholarship in Nursing History. Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine (p. 61). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001024903/

Similar Citations

Book Hallett, Christine E.; (2009)
Containing Trauma: Nursing Work in the First World War (/isis/citation/CBB001031297/)

Book Ronald S. Coddington; (2020)
Faces of Civil War Nurses (/isis/citation/CBB377639667/)

Book Hilde, Libra Rose; (2012)
Worth a Dozen Men: Women and Nursing in the Civil War South (/isis/citation/CBB001200639/)

Chapter Elena Branca; (2021)
Le dottoresse della CRI sul fronte della Grande Guerra (/isis/citation/CBB362298865/)

Book Lee, Janet; (2005)
War Girls: The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in the First World War (/isis/citation/CBB000820025/)

Book Alison S. Fell; Christine E. Hallett; (2013)
First World War Nursing: New Perspectives (/isis/citation/CBB196980408/)

Book Hallett, Christine E.; (2014)
Veiled Warriors: Allied Nurses of the First World War (/isis/citation/CBB001552214/)

Article László András Magyar; Şeref Etker; Szabolcs Dobson; (2017)
Dr. Amália Frisch among Women and Wars, Istanbul to Budapest (/isis/citation/CBB426446334/)

Article Linker, Beth; (2011)
Shooting Disabled Soldiers: Medicine and Photography in World War I America (/isis/citation/CBB001034284/)

Article Dyde, Sean; (2011)
The Chief Seat of Mischief: Soldier's Heart in the First World War (/isis/citation/CBB001034268/)

Thesis Barnes, Abigail Claire; (2010)
Pure Spaces and Impure Bodies: The Detention of Prostitutes in the U.S. during World War One (/isis/citation/CBB001567214/)

Authors & Contributors
Hallett, Christine E.
Lee, Janet
Magyar, László András
Coddington, Ronald S.
Dobson, Szabolcs
Alison S. Fell
Concepts
Medicine and the military; medicine in war
World War I
Nurses and nursing
Medicine
Women in medicine
Gender identity
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Places
United States
Europe
Southern states (U.S.)
London (England)
Turkey
Italy
Institutions
Red Cross Societies
American Red Cross
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment