Cadet Nurse Corps
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | June 15, 1943 |
| Dissolved | 1948 |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Parent agency | United States Public Health Service |
The United States Cadet Nurse Corps was established by the U.S. Congress on June 15, 1943, and signed into law by president Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 1, 1943. Its purpose was to ensure the country had enough nurses to care for its citizens at home and abroad during World War II. It was a non-discriminatory program that allowed Native Americans, African Americans, and relocated Japanese Americans to participate. The Corps was supervised by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), whose duty was to train young women as nurses during the war.
The program was open to all women between the ages of 17 and 35, in good health, who had graduated from an accredited high school. Successful applicants were eligible for a government subsidy, paying for tuition, books, uniforms, and a stipend. In exchange, they were required to pledge to actively serve in essential civilian or federal government services for the duration of World War II. All state nursing schools were eligible to participate in the program. However, they needed to be accredited by the accrediting agency in their state, and connected with a hospital that had been approved by the American College of Surgeons.
Cadet nurses came from across the nation and from all backgrounds. Some joined because they wanted to become nurses, others for the free education, and others joined because their country needed them. Attrition rates for cadets were comparable to those reported for other nursing schools in the same period. The corps was the largest of the federal nurse-training programs, and allowed young women to serve their country in uniform and without discrimination. The American Hospital Association credited the cadet student nurses with helping to prevent the collapse of civilian nursing during the war.
The unique feature of the program was its accelerated training curricula. The nursing schools were required to compress the traditional nursing program of 36 months to 30 months. Of the 1,300 schools of nursing in the country, 1,125 participated in the program. The Corps operated from 1943 until 1948, and during this period 179,294 student nurses enrolled in the program and 124,065 of them graduated from participating nursing schools. The enrollment included over 3,000 African Americans, 40 Native Americans, and 400 Japanese Americans. The federal government spent $160,326,237 on the nursing program.
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