The Sacred Twenty were a group of nurses who were the first female members to ever formally serve in the United States Navy representing the Nurse Corps. Officially formed in 1908, the Sacred Twenty made broad contributions during wartime, not only including training of field nurses and disease treatment, but also providing education programs for nurses abroad and professional publications to the field of nursing.
Shortly after the formation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901, the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) campaigned to create a similar organization for itself. Congress officially permitted the creation of the organization on 13 May 1908, where twenty women were selected as the first members. [1] The women were required to be between the ages of 22 and 44, to be citizens of the United States, and also could not be married. [2] They were initially headed by Esther Voorhees Hasson, a former member of the Army Nurse Corps, who was appointed as superintendent. [3] Hasson and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery collaboratively selected the other 19 nurses, who were chosen from various nursing schools and had training across a broad range of nursing skills. [4]
The Sacred Twenty were assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C for initial training [5] and were subsequently assigned to hospitals in Washington, New York City, Norfolk, and Annapolis for supervised duty. [6] Assignments were later expanded to many other cities including Philadelphia and Puget Sound. [6] Overseas, U.S. naval hospitals were built in Guam, Samoa, and the Philippines where some of the Sacred Twenty served. [7]
The navy did not provide room or board for them, and so the nurses rented their own accommodations and provided their own meals. [8] In 1910, Superintendent Hasson noted the dwindling applications from qualified candidates to the Nurse Corps, and subsequently pushed for initiatives such as better pay and reducing the cost of applications by foregoing an in-person interview and replacing it with a written essay requirement. [9] Initially, hospital administration was wary about the idea of introducing female nurses into settings without female patients because they believed they may serve to distract male patients. [10] Consequently, existing male nurses, who had not received sufficient training, performed most of the nursing tasks. [10] Some years after the Sacred Twenty's formation in 1908, however, female nurses began to champion this role in the Hospital Corps, even abroad. [10]
In addition to administering medical care on the battlefield and training of local nurses to do the same, the Sacred Twenty also implemented a number of other programs during their service. For instance, Chief Nurse Elizabeth Leonhardt, who arrived at the Naval Hospital in Guam 1911, not only worked with women and children, but also created a training school for local Chamorro women. Six women attended the first class, which was later expanded due to interest. Later classes included discussion of tuberculosis cases and training and teaching of massage therapy. [11] Some training in midwifery was also implemented by Leonhardt, in part due to her own perceived problems with native approaches to treatment. [12] [13] However, some have noted that these concerns may have been motivated by racial- and gender-based discrimination towards women in the tropics. [14]
Chief Nurse Beatrice Bowman, who arrived in 1916, also taught courses in midwifery and practical nursing, which later allowed trained nurses to provide more complete healthcare to the villages they were assigned to. [15] Later, when Bowman became Superintendent, she implemented mandatory inspections of all naval hospitals in order to create a more consistent standard of nursing and to gain firsthand experience of what challenges different hospitals and nurses faced. Bowman is also noted to have pushed for Navy nurses to continue their education and keep up-to-date with developments in medicine by taking postgraduate courses. [16]
Superintendent Lenah Higbee focused on publicizing and enhancing the reputation of the Nurse Corps. She often published articles in professional journals such as the American Journal of Nursing and encouraged nurses to contribute as well. [17]
The Sacred Twenty included three Nurse Corps Superintendents and twelve chief nurses. They were: [18]
Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee was a pioneering Canadian-born United States Navy military nurse, who served as Superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps during World War I. She is best known for being the first female recipient of the Navy Cross.
The United States Navy Nurse Corps was officially established by Congress in 1908; however, unofficially, women had been working as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals for nearly 100 years. The Corps was all-female until 1965.
Alene Bertha Duerk became the first female admiral in the U.S. Navy in 1972. She was also the director of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps from 1970 to 1975. She is a 1974 recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award of Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
Many women have served in the United States Navy for over a century. As of 2020, there were 69,629 total women on active duty in the US Navy, with 11,076 serving as officers, and 58,553 enlisted. Of all the branches in the US military, the Navy has the second highest percentage of female active duty service members with women making up 20% of the US Navy in 2020.
Esther Voorhees Hasson was the first Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps. Prior to and after serving in the United States Navy Nurse Corps, she served as an Army nurse.
Josephine Beatrice Bowman was the third superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
Myn M. Hoffman was the fourth Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
Sue S. Dauser was the fifth Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, guiding the Nurse Corps through World War II.
Captain Nellie Jane DeWitt was the sixth and final Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps and became its first Director.
Wilma Leona Jackson was an American nurse and military official who served as the third director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 1954 to 1958.
Rear Admiral Joan Marie Engel held the position as the 18th Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from September 1994 to August 1998. She concurrently served as deputy commander for personnel management in the Health Sciences, Education and Training Command, and later as assistant chief for Education, Training and Personnel.
Rear Admiral Maxine Conder was a United States Navy rear admiral who served as Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1975 to 1979.
Mary Fields Hall was the Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from 1987 to 1991. She was the first U. S. military nurse to command a hospital. She became the commanding officer at Naval Hospital, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in July 1983, and later commanded Naval Hospital, Long Beach, California.
Rear Admiral Mariann Stratton was the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1991 to 1994.
Captain Ruth Agatha Houghton was an American nurse who served as the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1958 to 1962.
Captain Ruth Alice Erickson (1913-2008) was the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 1962 to 1966. As a lieutenant in the Navy Nurse Corps, she witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.
Captain Veronica M. Bulshefski was the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 20 April 1966 to 1 May 1970.
Elizabeth Leonhardt (1867–1953) was one of the Sacred Twenty, the first 20 nurses in the United States Navy Nurse Corps during World War I. She was the Chief Nurse of the US Navy Nurse Corps in 1919.
Della V. Knight went to the German Hospital Training School for Nurses in Brooklyn, New York and graduated on 12 May 1903. Upon completion of Nursing School Della joined the Army Nursing Corps and served actively from July 1904 through September 1907. She left the Army and immediately joined the newly developed Navy Nurses Corps.
Sara Matilda Cox was an American nurse, born in Canada, one of the "Sacred Twenty", the first twenty women admitted to the United States Navy Nurse Corps. She was superintendent of nurses at the Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C. during World War I.