Nurses in Norway, then and now

The first school for nurses started in Oslo in 1868 and spread to the rest of the country from 1890. It was mostly 1-2 years education. The schools were run by hospitals, or religious or humanitarian organizations. The Norwegian Nurses Organisation (NNO) was founded in 1912 and the slogan was: “First skills, then rights”. NNO demanded 3 years education and that the state should authorize educated nurses, and in 1948 Norway got The Nursing Act that stated 3 years education for all nurses. The act also included specialization for midwives and psychiatric nurses. The first research in nursing in the Nordic countries was conducted in 1955 by Helga Dagsland (Nursing- a challenge). She saw that there is a clear link between research and professionalism in nursing: “We consider research to be an important instrument in our work to promote nursing as a profession”. In 1964 the NNO’s Research Committee was established. The committee was more directed towards social science, and not medical science. The first Department of Nursing Science was established in 1979 at University of Bergen. Today, we have nursing specialization in a broad range of areas, as well as master- and PhD- programmes. The NNO’s objectives today are multi-faceted and focused on policies of professional, socio-economic and representational concern.