Action in Adversity in the 1930s and 1940s: Effie Taylor, Nellie Hawkinson, and Stella Goostray

The great depression of the 1930s had a devastating effect on the nursing profession. Conditions changed rapidly as clinics and public hospitals became overcrowded and public health agencies were swamped with requests to serve a society in need (1). In voluntary hospitals, nurse unemployment soared as private duty nurses found themselves no longer in demand. Concerned with the gravity of the situation, the Committee on the Distribution of...