"Lively combat": Kathleen Ellis and the Canadian Nurses Association's lobby during the Second World War.

Abstract

Although it has become unfashionable in recent years to extol the achievements of those who have become known as the "elite" in Canadian nursing, it is nonetheless true that a number of early Canadian nurse leaders contributed significantly to the advancement of their profession. One such individual was Kathleen Wilhelmina Ellis. This article analyzes her impact as Emergency Nursing Advisor for the Canadian Courses Association (CNA) during World War II. The previously unreported success of the CNA in capitalizing on the "crisis" of world War II to counter plans of the Canadian Hospital Council to increase pupil nurse enrollments beyond hospitals' clinical teaching and supervision capabilities provides the context for analysis. From 1942 to 1946, the CNA administered a $774,000 grant from the Federal Government to improve teaching in hospital and university schools of nursing, provide bursaries for graduate nurses, and recruit increased numbers of qualified applicants to hospital nurse training programs. The success of the CNA in securing and administering these funds signalled its political acumen as national representative of Canadian nurses and nursing. Kathleen Ellis' contribution as Emergency Nursing Advisor for the CNA was important to the success of the CNA's lobby during World War II.