Nurses of World War 1 essays

Nurses of World War 1 essays Before World War I, the stereotype of a woman was a delicate mother or a housewife. The war was an opportunity for all women, including nurses, to break that stereotype and be involved with public, national affairs. Poster campaigns created posters picturing glamorous, All-American girls to attract women to join the war effort as nurses and doctors. Women started being encouraged to be tough, and the whole idea of being feminine changed; however, female nurses still had to struggle to change the attitudes of those who did not like women taking an active role in some part of the military. Even though nursing had always played an important part in wars before WWI, it had never before been considered a part of the military. The role played by nurses in the war was difficult as well as physically and emotionally draining. Their living conditions were far from perfect, and they had to clean wounds, perform minor surgeries, and give treatments with minimal supplies. The work was long and tiring, yet the nurses were still expected to be sprightly mother figures to each and every patient. The health, as well as the lives, of the nurses was also at risk. If a septic wound were to get into the smallest of cuts, the nurse could have come down with numerous types of sicknesses or diseases considering that their immune systems were terribly weak from eating low standard food at irregular times and not getting very much sleep. More than 23,000 women served as nurses from different organizations involved in the war including the Army nurses, Navy nurses, volunteer nurses, and American Red Cross nurses. Sometimes, hostility arose between the professional nurses and the volunteer nurses. They both did the same work in caring for the patients; however, they had different views on how the job should be done. The professional nurses were preoccupied with healing the soldiers strictly by the book, unlike the volunteers ...