structural:reformatting, stylistic:style_transfer, information:extraction
20th century

In the 19th and early 20th century, nursing was considered a woman's profession, just as doctoring was a profession for men. With increasing expectations of workplace equality during the late 20th century, nursing became an officially gender-neutral profession, though in practice the percentage of male nurses remained well below that of female physicians in the 21st century.

Hospital-based training became standard in the US in the early 1900s, with an emphasis on practical experience. The Nightingale-style school began to disappear. Hospitals and physicians saw women in nursing as a source of free/inexpensive labor. Exploitation of nurses was not uncommon by employers, physicians, and education providers.

Many nurses saw active duty in World War I, but the profession transformed again during the Second World War. British nurses of the Army Nursing Service were part of every overseas campaign. More nurses volunteered for service in the US Army and Navy than any other occupation. The Nazis had their own Brown Nurses, numbering 40,000. Two dozen German Red Cross nurses were awarded the Iron Cross for heroism under fire.

The development of undergraduate and post-graduate nursing degrees came after the war. Nursing research and a desire for association and organization led to the formation of professional organizations and academic journals. Nursing became recognized as a distinct academic discipline, initially tasked to define the theoretical basis for practice.