The Cadet Nurse Corps in Arizona: A History of Service

Congress established the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II to meet the high demand for medical care. The first federal women’s education program, it included a nondiscrimination policy decades before the civil rights movement. The trailblazing cadets and innovative healthcare practices at the five participating teaching hospitals in Arizona left a lasting national legacy. Sage Memorial Hospital was the country’s only accredited nursing school for Native Americans. Santa Monica’s Hospital and nursing school was the first to integrate west of the Mississippi. The daughter of a Navajo medicine man, U.S. Army Nurse Corps second lieutenant Adele Slivers helped bridge a gap between traditional healing practices and modern medicine. Arizona author Elsie Szecsy details momentous local challenges and achievements from this pivotal era in American medicine.