05/30/2022
Memorial Day usually refers to the soldiers. But, throughout history, nurses have been on the frontlines, risking their lives and caring and comforting injured soldiers.
Nursing became a permanent resident in the U.S. Army Medical Department in 1901 as the U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC). But, documents have placed nurses in the line of duty since the Civil War and the Crimean War. Well-known nurses like, Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, have stepped in to care for the wounded during the time of war.
There was an increase of nurses in both of the World Wars. In World War I, there were approximately 30,000 women in the military, most of them as nurses, and by the end of World War II, there were over 59,000 in the ANC (in the beginning of WWII, there were only 1000). It wasn’t until WWII that nurses received the same (or close to) standards of rank as soldiers. In 1947, the Air Force Medical Service established their own nurse corps.
By the time of the Korean War, nurses were the only females allowed in combat. They served aboard ships, mobile hospitals, and hospital trains. Soon, however, the nurse corps reduced their ranks in the Vietnam War, where less than 7,000 nurses served. According to a teacher who served in the Vietnam War, when asking his students about the toughest job while on the frontlines, he said, “Not one of them had the same answer I did. I told them I thought it was being a nurse.”
A military nurse is one of the most respected professions in the military, and it has provided the framework for other nurses in different fields. Nurses have played, and continue to play, an essential role in transporting patients, assisting other healthcare personnel, tending to wounded soldiers, and comforting soldiers in their time of need.
From NurseAdvisorMagazine.com