Nursing in 1950 was all about infection control. Part of this focus on hygeine and infection control used data from 1946. It compared infection rates in women who had children delivered by midwives (who did not often have infections), to the women giving birth in a hospital (who often did). The research found that the medical students assisting laboring women in the hospitals came directly from the cadaver lab, and the fluids and materials from the cadavers made its way into the womens’ system, causing the infections and deaths.

In the late 1950s, nursing programs debated which education should be mandatory to be a nurse in a hospital and to care for patients. Most RNs went to war during the war, leaving hospitals with low staffing. New community-based nursing programs grew out of this void, and new nurses were provided with community-based education. This division still exists between RNs with bachelor (BSN) degrees, and nurses with an associate (ASN or LPN) degree.

Nursing students attending class in the 1950s

In 1960, The Consultant Group’s report, Toward Quality in Nursing, stated that nursing has “poor compensation”, which in turn leads to no new students, a lack of research on the problems in the nursing profession, and misuse of nursing personnel on the units. After the article's results were published in 1960, and the study resulted in the US federal government making a considerable grant to improve nursing education and research. An outcome of this was the Health Professions Education Assistance Act. The Assistance Act provided grants for the education of healthcare professionals for rural and inner-city nursing.

Signing the Health Professions Education Assistance Act

Another outcome of the Consultant Group’s report was The Nurse Training Act, enacted in 1964. This act provided funding for all three types of nursing training: baccalaureate, associate, and diploma. The act further confused the debate about which type of education should be required to become a nurse. The following year, when President Johnson signed the law of the government-funded health insurance of Medicare and Medicaid legislation in 1965; The American Nurses Association published a paper stating three levels of nursing education. The first level of nursing education is the baccalaureate, the second level is associate, and the third is the nurse’s assistant. The paper caused even more friction in nursing due to all of the licensed nurses created from the war shortage. The paper dismissed the diploma nurse as not being a nurse.

A review of the Nurse Training Act of 1964

Today this debate continues with LPNs assuming they do not have enough education to practice. Some states in the US have tried to stop their practice. This removal of LPNs from nursing is an impossible task. Too many of these LPNs work in nursing facilities under the supervision of one to two RNs. It would increase the nurse shortage by removing LPNs. Additionally, the LPN has experience and knowledge that they can pull from the supervising RNs. I know I did when I first became a nurse!

Seven Healthcare-associated infection prevention strategies

Remember how we discussed the study of infection rates of mothers giving birth from the early 1950s? Well, in 1960, hospitals across the United States enacted hospital-acquired infection protocols, which were firmly established by 1970. Each hospital wrote its own policy and procedures about infection control, and these hospital policies were written without oversight from the CDC (which was yet to be established), or JCAHO. In 2002, JCAHO and the CDC accepted standard precautions, and adopted them as mandatory practices - including banning artificial nails.

Today, the CDC is now the leading agency on infection control and how to stop the spread of any type of infection, with COVID-19 being the most recent. From the 1950s until today, the nursing profession has changed over the years. While problems still exist in which updated education is needed; we can say nursing is here to help patients get well or attain better health status through the guidance of their nursing staff.