Nursing During the War

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Nurse giving Inoculations

Photograph #17 on Source page

Real Accounts of the Challenges Faced by Nurses

"The time I was most frightened, we were traveling "blackout" with blackout curtains and red lights inside that allowed us to see. Hospital ships usually traveled alone, and at night turned lights on. This time our commanding officer felt that if we were lighted up, the Japanese would see the warships. We were fired on in the middle of the night, and it hit not far from where I was sleeping." (18)

U.S. Navy

USS Solace

Agnes Shurr

Photograph #18 on Source page

"The problems were constant. For instance, after we reached [an altitude of] 8,000 feet there was a lack of oxygen, and often we climbed to 10,000 feet because of weather conditions. Then we had to give oxygen to patients continuously. Small oxygen tanks were all we had room for, and patients shared them. We did use alcohol on the tanks between patients, but it wasn't very sanitary. A lot of the planes didn't have heaters, and at 10,000 feet, even in the South Pacific, it was cold.

Sometimes we had to make forced landings because of maintenance or weather or fuel shortages, and this caused big problems for the commanding officers of the airstrips where we landed. Most of the time these fields were under attack by the Japanese, and we'd often have to head for foxholes, with the war being fought right above us" (19)

U.S. Army Air Force

801st Medical Air Evacuation Squadron

Margaret Richey Raffa

Photograph #19 on Source page

"Blackouts were always in effect, so we had to do a lot in complete darkness, often without the aid of even a flashlight to show the way. Utter, pitch-black darkness descended about 4:30 P.M. and lasted until 8:30 A.M. Because of air raids, the blackout system was so complete that you never saw even a crack of light when a door was opened."

"We worked like beavers, never enough nurses to go around. One nurse might have responsibility for nearly two hundred very sick patients, spread over an area of approximately two city blocks." (20)

U.S. Army

250th Station Hospital

Evangeline Bakke Fairall

Photograph #20 on Source page

Statistics

The role of nurses in World War II is often underestimated or overlooked; however, the numbers tell a different story.

16 nurses were killed during World War II as a result of enemy action (21)
67 World War II nurses served time as prisoners of war (22)
1600 nurses were decorated for meritorious service, meaning they received awards or honors from the U.S. military for outstanding conduct (23)
Segregation in the U.S. military limited the number of black nurses allowed, less than 500 of the 50,000 nurses in the ANC were black (24)
Almost all nurses were female
64.4 percent, or 28,451, of U.S. WACs did office-related work (25)
Nearly half of the eligible civilian nurses in the country joined the Army or Navy Nurse Corps (26)

Nurse treating a Head Wound

Photograph #21 on Source page

Role of Nurses in World War II

Nurses aided the wounded, even taking over roles formerly only done by doctors. They helped to heal soldiers both physically and mentally. They created nursing as a true profession, delving into fields like psychological nursing. So why are their roles not discussed when they were of such importance during the war?

Where did nurses serve?

Nurses served in combat zones throughout the European and Mediterranean theatres from the first days of D-Day in North Africa through campaigns in Italy and France. Finally, as the war came to an end through the most difficult and bloody military campaigns, they were in Germany on VE-Day. (27)

Map of Location in which Nurses served in the North African Campaign

Photograph #22 on Source page

Nurse talking to a recovering POW

Photograph #23 on Source page

roles of nurses in the war

Nurses shared the same horrors of war and acts of courage as soldiers in the field. They also assisted with professionalizing the constant and changing demands of healthcare on the battlefields by working with and training medical corpsmen. They set up and managed evacuation stations treating both soldiers and civilians near the front lines. Nurses provided care that stabilized the men before evacuation to a station hospital. Finally, nurses were in the general hospitals that provided help for long term recovery. As women and nurses, their mere presence brought "home" to the injured and traumatized. (30)

Role of Nurses As Caretakers

In all of the campaigns nurses were not merely witnesses or passive observers; they were soldiers and health care providers. Sometimes even though they were not assigned to the most dangerous duties, they volunteered because it meant one more son, husband, or father might be able to make it back home from a combat zone, or rejoin a unit short of men.

Nurses treated the troops with compassion, courage, and humor. They aided their patients by building morale

and helped to heal overburdened minds as well as broken bodies. Many soldiers were inspired by the example of the hardworking nurses who cared for them. (28)

WHat Are the challenges and dangers nurses faced?

Nurses in the Operating Room

Photograph #24 on Source page

Wartime nurses and doctors worked in overcrowded makeshift hospitals, under less-than-sanitary conditions, often without adequate supplies, and sometimes even without running water or electricity. These unsanitary conditions made their jobs even more difficult. Nurses were also challenged as they had to focus on remaining strong for their patients who saw them as pillars of strength even when under stressful conditions. Nurses also constantly faced danger. An example of this danger was when 67 nurses were taken as prisoners of war in May of 1942. They were unable to communicate with their families until the end of the war, and they spent 37 months in captivity. Instead of crumbling under this immense stress, the nurses continued their work helping other captives in the prison camps. Nurses were also often stationed in dangerous locations with some even being killed in the line of duty. An example of this was that 57 nurses with the 48th Surgical Hospital landed in 1942 with the Allied Invasion Forces in North Africa. Additionally, 42 nurses were among the first to land in Normandy in 1944 and set up the 42nd Field Hospital. Finally, two days after the liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, American nurses arrived and helped to treat the severely malnourished and disease-ridden survivors. (29)

Nurse at work in the field

Photograph #25 on Source page

Two nurses after spending time as prisoners of war

Photograph #26 on Source page

the personality of nurses and coping with death and loss

Nurses were often described as being adventurous, independent, self-motivated, and self-reliant. Nurses became determined and confident during their training in both private and military life and brought this fortitude with them to the frontlines.

With so few women in each unit, the nurses bonded quickly and provided a sense of family not only among themselves but among their patients as well. Sadly, individual women's voices provide information not only about the lives they endured but also about the deaths of their "sister" nurses. The deaths of their "sister" nurses were like the deaths of a loved one, and nurses had to deal with the same sense of loss when a "sister" nurse died as when soldiers lost a fellow soldier in the field. In addition to this sense of loss when a fellow nurse died, the nurses had to cope with the deaths of thousands of their patients. The psychological toll of this one these women is not talked about enough. (31)

Nurse friendships in WWII

Photograph #27 on source page