Nurses

“When the issue of control moved out of the sickroom and hospital corridors into the legislative arena, the battle over nursing became more visible and vituperative. . . . The laws differed from state to state and changed over time, but most were permissive rather than mandatory and did not cover ‘all who nursed for hire.’ They differentiated nurses more by education than by practice; only those wanting to be labeled as ‘registered nurses’ need to sit for the examination and/or graduate from approved nursing schools. . . . Qualifications for taking the state examination and control over the examining boards focused the real question: legal acknowledgment of nursing’s right to determine its own occupational future. Few physicians were willing to concede to nursing, through state mandate, what they were unwilling to give up in practice (Reverby, 124). . . . Opposition was voiced by physicians and “also was voiced by nurses who had graduated from smaller schools. . . . Even when registration was passed, the administration of the laws and the nursing boards proved to be as weak as most of the laws themselves” (127). . . . The professional nursing associations’ focus on registration and education reforms often brought them into conflict with their own constituencies and physicians, and into precarious alliances with the larger hospitals and their associations. Although legislation slowly upgraded standards in the schools, it did not achieve the goal of legitimating the professional nursing associations’ right to regulate nursing or facilitate the creation of a united occupation” (128).