United States Navy Nurse Corps

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Seal of the Navy Nurse Corps
Group photo of the first 20 Navy Nurses, the "Sacred Twenty", taken in the Naval Hospital in 1908

The United States Navy Nurse Corps (USNNC) is a unit of the United States Navy with a strength of approximately 5,000 soldiers and is part of the Navy Medicine Corps . It consists exclusively of nursing staff with a degree in nursing with officer rank .

Currently, the USNNC forms one of the four pillars of the US Navy medical service , the other three are the Navy Medical Corps , Navy Dental Corps and Navy Medical Service Corps . The USNNC was formally established by the US Congress in 1908 and was the first unit in which women served as soldiers in the US Navy and which to this day is commanded exclusively by women. The director of the US Navy Nurse Corps is also Chief of Staff of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED).

Emergence

Until 1908, women were mostly volunteers and men in the naval medical corps, their designation was also "nurse", but the level of training of male nurses corresponded more to that of the "hospital corpsmen", the paramedics and not that of the clear better trained civilian nurses. On May 13, 1908, the unit was founded as USNNC and staffed with 20 women, the so-called "Sacred Twenty" (English. "The holy twenty"), all of whom had a very high level of professional training, for example worked as head nurses. Initially, in addition to the daily duties of a nurse, the task was to train the male medical staff and the local population in the overseas branches of the US Navy. In 1913 the sisters were first used in the medical service of a ship.

development

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War , the unit consisted of 160 women. With the growing need for healthcare professionals, the USNNC has expanded to over 1,550 women. During the war, the women served overseas, sometimes directly behind the front. Some of the “Navy Operating Teams” formed during the war, to which the Nurses belonged, were also seconded to the army to support it. 19 women lost their lives while serving in World War I.

In 1920 the women of the USNNC were stationed permanently on the ships of the US Navy, the first of these ships was the "Relief", which was equipped in particular for the performance of humanitarian aid .

The Second World War brought with it a further increase in the number of troops, which had been reduced to just under 500 between the two world wars . In the course of the war, the increasingly professionalized and specialized nurses received formal recognition in that they were not only placed on an equal footing with officers as civilian personnel, but were also included in the officer ranks. As a result, the Navy Nurses served in almost all military conflicts with American participation, including the Korean War , the Vietnam War , the Gulf War and Iraq .

Current situation

A hundred years after its creation, the USNNC is a 5,000-strong, internationally operating medical unit of the US Navy and, together with its commander, currently Rear Admiral Christine Bruzek-Kohler , is also the Naval Medical Inspector General , one of the highest posts in the medical corps. The unit consists exclusively of officers. Around a third of nurses are now male. In addition to the general conditions for the armed forces, the entry requirements are at least a Bachelor of Science degree in one of the nursing sciences . The members of the USNNC are recruited as part of the NROTC (Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps) program at the universities or they volunteer for service. The obligation of at least three years of service is mandatory.

The US Navy ensures that this unit is continuously trained; almost all additional training courses for medical professionals are offered. The nurses in this unit are among the most highly qualified nursing staff in the world, their level of knowledge and training cannot be compared with that of a nurse working in civil nursing. In addition to the nursing care of her comrades, her area of ​​responsibility includes primarily treatment care , in particular the training of medical personnel, humanitarian and disaster relief, the organization and coordination of military hospitals and hospitals in crisis areas as well as the emergency medical care of trauma under war conditions or on board the hospital ships . The members of the USNNC work in small teams and are stationed worldwide either in the overseas naval ports or on ships of the US Navy.

USNNC superintendents and directors

"Superintendent Navy Nurse Corps" is the equivalent of the current title of "Director of the Navy Nurse Corps" and was made up of civilians or senior nurses without military rank from its foundation until 1922.

On April 16, 1947, the Army-Navy Nurses Act was passed, which equates the Navy Nurse Corps with a Staff Corps. From then on, nurses, and later nurses, were given officers' rank . Another reform took place in 1970, through which the former superintendent and current director can also be promoted to flag officer , admiral rank .

Particularly distinguished members of the USNNC

  • Esther Voorhees Hasson, first Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps
  • Lenah Higbee was awarded the Navy Cross in 1918 in recognition of her service as the first living woman
  • Captain Nellie Jane DeWitt, the Navy's first nurse to rise to the highest rank of captain
  • Rear Adm. Alene B. Duerk was the first woman in the US Navy to be named flag officer

Ship names

literature

  • Susan H. Godson: Serving Proudly. A History of Women in the US Navy , Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-317-6
  • D. Collett Wadge: Women in Uniform , Chapter 10, pp. 334 ff. Women in the United States Armed Forces: Navy Nurses , Imperial War Museum, 2003, ISBN 1-901623-61-0

Web links