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1920s: Dealing with oversupply

In the 1920s, amid a saturated nursing field from WWI demand, WSGNA pushed for higher educational standards and shorter working hours to address rising unemployment.

This story appears in We’ve had your back since 1908.

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History banner 1920s

Nurses were in high demand during and after WWI, which led to nursing schools being filled with new students. Within a few years, the nursing field became saturated as new graduates sought employment, and by the late 1920s, unemployment had reached alarming rates. WSGNA worked to support higher educational requirements and shorter working hours to address the problem of oversupply.

  • 26 health sentinels
    The “Health Sentinels” were an early nurses’ club at the University of Washington. (1921)
  • 26 public health
    WSGNA member Elizabeth Sterling Soule (at left) with a group of public health nursing field students in front of the Red Cross Visiting Nurse Services building in Seattle. (1923)
  • 26 students
    Students at the Tacoma General Hospital School of Nursing.
1920-1929 timeline

WSGNA went on record asking for military rank for WWI nurses in support of ANA’s position. In 1920, Congress granted partial rank, from second lieutenant to major, to an estimated 20,000 Army nurses in recognition of their service.

In 1922, WSGNA established a Private Duty Section to address the needs of nurses working as private duty nurses. The Private Duty Section was key in the statewide adoption of 12-hour shifts for private duty nurses.

In 1923, Etta B. Cummings, WSGNA’s first treasurer, died and left her house and estate, valued at $2,500, to establish the Etta B. Cummings Memorial Fund, to be used for “Sick and Worn-Out Nurses of Washington State.” This fund, now called the Emergency Assistance Grant Fund, is administered by the Washington State Nurses Foundation and disbursed $80,000 to 160 WSNA members experiencing significant financial hardship during COVID-19.

On Jan. 1, 1929, the first issue of The Bulletin, the official publication of WSGNA, was published. The Bulletin’s name was later changed to the Washington State Journal of Nursing and then The Washington Nurse.

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Editorial!

The Bulletin, January 1929
Inaugural issue

We are sure that the desire in someone's heart, that the nurses of our State might have a medium through which to express themselves, was responsible for the inspirational thought that created our Bulletin; so this must be its purpose in part; not only those nurses from whom such creations are expected, but from the rank and file of us.

Most of us have beautiful pictures within ourselves; wonderful creations passing before our mind's eye; cannot we make word pictures of them, share our visions with our neighbors?

Would it not be interesting to go step by step with a nurse through some most unusual case where she has helped in the fight for some life with new methods and new drugs and won out? Unfortunately those battles are not all won.

Or to tell us of a wonderful vacation day in the country where she learned some of the secrets of Nature; or a bit of poetry. Please do not wait to be asked, just write it and send it on.

Another important reason for the creation of this Bulletin was that we might grow to know each better; what we are doing;—that one District might be an inspiration to another. We have had State Headquarters for some time, but this publication will give us something in common around which to gather and through which to express our thoughts.

When each person carries a share, the burden is not too heavy for any one, and we are sure that each person will carry her share. If the spirit with which each District has entered into the work this month is a forerunner of all the rest, we certainly have great reason to be encouraged.

We have started out with enthusiasm, and with a steady purpose in our hearts, I am sure our little Bulletin will have a place in our future development.

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Leadership

Executive Secretary

  • 1924-1938 Cora Gillespie

President

  • 1920-1922 Janet Sigerson
  • 1922-1924 Grace McKinney
  • 1924-1925 Alice Claude
  • 1925-1927 Ella Wilkinson Harrison
  • 1927-1928 Carolyn E. Davis
  • 1928-1930 Cecile Tracy Spry
26 ella wilkinson
Ella Wilkinson Harrison, WSGNA president from 1911-1913 and 1925-1927.