PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

Abstract

THE effort to coordinate nursing organizations in the United States and make them more effective in the tremendous task of meeting the nation's constantly increasing demand for nursing care, which has become known among nurses as "the structure study," is currently being given fresh impetus as nurses all over the country hold workshops to consider two new plans prepared by their Committee on the Structure of National Nursing Organizations. The study of the structure of organized nursing began more than a decade ago when the board of directors of the American Nurses' Association, in response to a recommendation of a state nurses' association, voted that a special committee be appointed to consider the possibility of consolidating the American Nurses' Association, the National League of Nursing Education, and the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. Next definite action occurred in January 1944, when the boards of directors of those three organizations voted to undertake a joint survey of their "organization structure, administration, functions and facilities to determine whether a more effective means can be found to promote and carry forward the strongest possible program for professional nursing and nurses." A committee representative of all three organizations was formed, and in late 1944 and early 1945 representatives were named to the committee by three other organizations, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, the American Association of Industrial Nurses, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing.