This week we are republishing a story that appeared on our pages on this date in history. We hope it will give you an appreciation for our Corps’ illustrious heritage and a unique look at the style and tone of journalism during these years. Today’s article features the 69th anniversary of the Navy Nurse Corps.
“To attend with fidelity and care,” has been the mission of The Navy Nurse Corps since it began 69 years ago.
In 1811 the Secretary of the Navy commissioned Dr. William P. Barton a young Navy surgeon, to submit recommendations for conducting hospitals and institutions for the sick.
“The nurses, whose number should be proportionate to the extent of the hospitals and number of patients,” wrote Barton, “should be women of humane disposition and tender manners; active and healthy. They would be neat and cleanly in their persons, without vices of any description… and are to attend with fidelity and care upon all the sick committed to their charge.”
It was nearly 100 years before Dr. Barton’s recommendation became a reality.
Meanwhile, Roman Catholic nuns served in the medical department during the Civil War aboard the hospital ship Red Rover.
During the Spanish American War, an increased number of skilled nurses was needed to care for the sick and wounded. Though not an official Navy unit, a group of women was employed in 1898 by the U.S. Naval Hospital at Norfolk, Va. a verbal agreement assured them they would be reimbursed for traveling expenses and receive moderate pay…if means could be found.
Esther Hasson was appointed first superintendent when the Navy Nurse Corps was finally established, on May 13, 1908. The first 20 nurses, who later came to be called the “Sacred Twenty” reported in October to the U.S. Naval Hospital, Washington, D.C. for orientation and duty.
The nurses were unique not only because they were the first women in the Navy, but because they were neither officer nor enlisted.
It wasn’t until the Army-Navy Nurses Act of April 1947 that Congress authorized permanent commissioned rank and permanent integration of Reserves into the Regular Navy.
Today, more than 2,500 Nurse Corps members save the Navy family. They are led by Rear Admiral Maxine Conders, the second woman ever to be named an admiral in the Navy.
The Regional Medical Center here has a staff of 65 female and 15 male Nurses under the direction of Captain Theresa M. Proto, chief of nursing services.
A ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. May 13 in the hospital officers dining area commemorating the gallantry and traditional devotion to duty of the Navy Corps on their 69th Anniversary.
| Date Taken: |
05.12.1977 |
| Date Posted: |
03.20.2019 09:58 |
| Story ID: |
314864 |
| Location: |
CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: |
91 |
| Downloads: |
0 |
PUBLIC DOMAIN
This work, The Navy Nurse Corps celebrates their 69th Anniversary, by Cpl Karina Lopezmata, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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