Cadet Nurse Corps The Cadet Nurse Corps Program was supervised by the United States Public Health Service ( PHS ) to train nurses during World War II . After America entered the war , the demand for nurses increased dramatically , outstripping the supply and creating a shortage . The instructional staff and facilities of the existing civilian schools of nursing needed to be strengthened . The plan conceived to do so contemplated that nursing students would receive accelerated training , and their services would be used even while still in training . Thus , a larger number of graduate nurses could be freed for military service overseas . And it meant that civilian and military communities on the home front would receive substitute - nursing care by student nurses . An emergency measure was considered faster and more economical than reinstituting the Army School of Nursing , or building similar military schools based in hospitals . The plan became concrete when Representative Frances P . Bolton of Ohio introduced her bill on March 29 , 1943 . The bill requested the establishment of a special government program to facilitate the training of nurses . Applicants would be granted subsidization of nursing school tuition , associated expenses , and a shorter training period . In exchange , applicants pledged to actively serve in essential civilian or other federal government services for the duration of the war . In addition , the bill would provide certain funds for participating , accredited schools of nursing . This measure intended to ensure that as many schools as possible would take part in the Cadet Nurse Corps program . The Nurse Training Act ( known as the Bolton Act ) passed Congress unanimously . The bill was signed by President Roosevelt on June 15 , 1943 , and became Public Law 74 on July 1 , 1943 . The Cadet Nurse Corps ( originally designated the Victory Nurse Corps ) would be administered by the United States Public Health Service ( PHS ) . The Division of Nurse Education was established in the PHS to supervise the Cadet Nurse Corps and answerable to the US Surgeon General , Thomas Parran , Jr . , who appointed Lucile Petry , a registered nurse ( RN ) , director of the Cadet Nurse Corps To qualify , the women were required to be between 17 and 35 , a high school graduate or a college student , in good health and mentally alert . Advertisements for the " war job with a future " promised free training with pay , room and board , and uniforms ( " There ' s one for summer and one for winter , and it ' s hard to say which is the smarter , which you ' ll wear with more pride " ) . Applicants were assured they could wear " something frilly and feminine " for dances , and they would have time for dating . Nursing schools throughout the country were informed of the Cadet Nurse Corps program and invited to join . Schools who wanted to take part in the program had to fulfill minimal requirements . They had to be accredited , and affiliated with a hospital approved by the American College of Surgeons . The staff and the facilities had to be adequate , but superior standards were not required . Schools with substandard conditions were not rejected , but supported with funds from the Corps to improve their training possibilities . When the Cadet Nurse Corps program ended , 1 , 125 of the 1 , 300 nursing schools in the country had participated .