The 1955 Census of Public Health Nurses

Abstract

employing public health nurses in increasing numbers. At the same time, the number of nurses employed by local official health agencies has increased slightly, although the rate of increase has declined decidedly during the past five years. Seven percent of all active registered nurses in the country are currently employed in some type of public health work, and more than a third of these public health nurses have completed one or more years of public health nursing training in a program which has been approved by the Accrediting Service of the National League for Nursing.1 Information on the number and qualifications of nurses employed by public health agencies has been obtained regularly over many years. From 1912 to 1931, it was collected periodically by the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. The development and expansion of public health programs, with the increased employment and training of nurses which followed the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935, highlighted the need for additional information on public health nursing resources throughout the country. Accordingly, data were collected each year, 1937 through 1953, by state directors of public health nursing and tabulated by the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1953, the Council of State Directors of Public Health Nursing worked with nurses of the Public Health Service to revise the census forms. It was decided that the collection of data would be made every two years rather than -annually. Data tabulated in the 1955 census are published in 22 tables. Information is presented on the number, academic education, and public health nursing preparation of graduate nurses em-