THE NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR NURSING 1952-1972: RESPONSE TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION MOVEMEN

Covering a span of two decades, the study aims to show the response of a major national nursing organization, the National League for Nursing, to the movement toward higher education in the United States following World War II. Through investigation and interpretation of primary sources, it offers a historical perspective by tracing events and forces that influenced the N.L.N.'s direction in nursing education.;The study is viewed within the context of significant developments and trends in the nation during a period of marked social change that included radical reforms in health care precipitated by scientific and technological advances. It illustrates how those changes affected the nursing profession and its long struggle to move nursing education into the college and university system. Explored are such areas as the increasing role of government in social and health matters; the impact of federal funding programs on health care; implications and issues in relation to civil rights legislation; emergence of the patients' rights movement; and the proliferation of new types of health careerists.;An in-depth examination is provided of the N.L.N.'s involvement in associate degree, diploma and baccalaureate nursing education. Featured to a large extent are the programs and activities of the League's Division of Nursing Education as they relate to the growth and development of nursing education in the country. In describing the policies and positions of the N.L.N.'s education departments, the study demonstrates the association's efforts to deal with membership factions and organizational components having different ideologies. Also shown is the organization's official and administrative leadership in action and the influence of key people--nurses and non-nurses--on policy formation in nursing education.;N.L.N.'s complex relationship with the American Nurses' Association is explored, focusing on important collaborative efforts as well as areas of conflict. Also examined is the one-organization issue from its genesis, and the consequences to the profession resulting from confusion of function of the two nursing organizations.;Depicted are the crucial events of the 1950s and 1960s leading to major positions of the League and the A.N.A. on educational preparation for beginning professional nursing practice. Developments subsequent to the release of these expressed policies on education, including the intense reaction of thousands of nurses as well as other groups, are factually recounted through original documents of the period. Detailed is N.L.N.'s relationship with the American Hospital Association in regard to accreditation concerns and the perpetuation of diploma nursing education.;The work singles out the League's achievements over the 20-year period, particularly its efforts to promote quality in nursing education through the school improvement program--accreditation, consultation, testing and evaluation and other related services. It shows the N.L.N.'s outstanding leadership in the development of the associate degree program in nursing. The study also looks at the organization's limitations. In this light, it analyzes the league's most singular lack--its inability to effect a progressive and relevant system of nursing education.;An epilogue updating events to the summer of 1979, describes the social and political climate of the decade and significant new trends in health care delivery. Assessed are renewed attempts of the nursing organizations to deal with nursing's unresolved and most critical issue: preparation for entry into the profession.;The study concludes with recommendations for organized nursing to consider in regard to the kinds of education necessary to prepare knowledgeable and highly skilled nurses who can adapt to the changes anticipated in health care of the future.