ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the development of the nursing labor force in a health system over which nursing workers have hitherto had virtually no control. It provides some basic material on the objective character of the nursing labor force which may be helpful in beginning that analysis. The chapter presents a statistical and descriptive picture of the nursing labor force as it exists and explores the historical development of that labor force up to about 1950, stressing its general integration into a hierarchical and concentrated health industry. It also presents a more detailed analysis of the quantitative and qualitative development of the nursing labor force. Throughout most of the 19th century, there was no organized nursing labor force in the United States. The increasing tendency of registered nursesb to stay in the nursing labor force is also reflected in the changes in the average age of nurses since the 1940s.
