Military Service & Wartime Nursing
University of Maryland School of Nursing graduates have served with distinction in every major military engagement since the Spanish-American War in 1898. While most returned to civilian life, others spent their careers with the Army or Navy Nurse Corps.
Military nursing had a profound impact on School of Nursing veterans and their colleagues across the nation. Answering the call to serve, nurses found work that was valued and widely recognized. Military duty bolstered the authority of all nurses while the stratified workforce of the military put graduate nurses at the head of the nursing hierarchy. For nurses of the 1940s in particular, the novel experience of being in charge of male corpsmen and enlisted men was not soon forgotten.