For nearly four decades, the United States has honored its
nurses with National Nurses Week, held between May 6 and May 12 — the birthday
of celebrated British nurse Florence Nightingale. Considered the pioneer of
modern nursing, Nightingale first garnered fame after she and her team of
nurses reduced the death rate at a British base hospital by two-thirds during
the Crimean War in the 1850s.
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| Florence Nightingale |
The contributions of female nurses to the American military,
however, reach as far back as the American Revolution when women cared for the
fallen on battlefields and in camps. In the summer of 1775, Maj. Gen. Horatio
Gates of the Continental Army reported to Commander-in-Chief George Washington
that, “the sick suffered much for want of good female Nurses.” Gen. Washington
asked for help from Congress, which approved one nurse for every ten patients
in Continental hospitals.
The U.S. military officially added contract nurses for the
first time soon after the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898 to help care
for the overwhelming numbers of sick as well as the injured. More than 1,500
nurses served, including 250 nuns, 80 African-American nurses, and at least
four Native Americans. Twenty-one of these women died after contracting
illnesses from those in their care.
Acknowledging these nurses’ invaluable contributions in
saving lives and hoping to avoid panic the next time war broke out, the Surgeon
General established the criteria for a reserve force of nurses in 1899, and in
1901, Congress established the Army Nurse Corps. Seven years later, it created
the Navy Nurse Corps.
When the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, it had 403
Army nurses and 160 Navy nurses on active duty. By the end of the war, more
than 22,000 nurses had served in the military—with several decorated for their
actions. Several hundred lost their lives while in service, including many who
became victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918.
After the U.S. entered World War II, the American National
Red Cross put out a nationwide call for 50,000 nurses to join the Army and Navy
Nurse Corps. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, whose four sons were serving in the
military, pleaded in an editorial in the American Journal of Nursing in 1942
for young women to join.
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