Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Ektlaan 27
A. No, I cam in on the period in which you were practicwg--now ifiyou -
weren't making a_-living that way [it didn' t apply] ; but arl~ybody who was
making their living at nursing, even if it was practical quming, they
were accepted for state registration c&ring this [waiver] pe~iod. until
a certain tk they could do that. There were 54 of those who had no training-they
were practical nurses--but they were [accepted as] registered
nurses.
E
Q. You would have been considered a real nurse?
-.k-
A. Oh, yes, because I had rry degree; I had my diploma an everything. That,
with two years training, was all that was required then. d there were no
standards for nursing schools, and the Boand of Examiners ad to rrake them.
And I was appointed on the boaud. I was not on the very 'rst board, but
I cam along later. That was ane of the requiremnts [to e on the board]
they had to know what they were doing, of come. I th there was one board
before rry board-the board that I was on. What changed tvt, I 'rn not sure,
but the governor mde those appointments. Then we conducted the staf;e board
examinations. After that period of prepamtion, well, tha probation period
we'll call it, they could get in with what they had when the law first cane
into effect. [This was changed later].
Q. About when was that? I
A. Jme, 1913, . and then I was. reappointed' in June, 1915. i
Q. Which governor appohted you?
A. Governor Dunne . I wasn ' t Catholic, but I was downst a* and I was from
SpringfYeld. You see, there's always that competition between Chicqo and
downst ate. And that s how I was appointed.
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There wm an executive Board of Examiners of Nurses, as s Mary C. Wheeler,
before m. She established an office, or the board did, $ Chicago, and
they flazctioned fYom there for quite a while. Then when the board that I
was appointed to came, why, they thought we should be, as J1 ve probably
said before, a visible part of the mchanism of Illinois mlic activity.
Well, then I was appointed in lQ12. No, that was school wsing. I had
school nurnfng until 1914, In 1914 I was appointed as the executive, but
that wamlt my title. title was secretary and treasm of the board.
State Board of Nurse Examiners, and Governor m e appointed E. And because
the nurses Ln the State Nurses Association wanted IE and ey wanted a downstate
nurse, or they wanted the office to be downstate, ad to establish
the offlce, too, when I was apppinted. But I left my 1 nursing job
pretty soon; two years wasn't very long to do it. The nurses could do
it and they didn't seem to be able to think they
So I had this office. Our exqining boards, our license practice boards,
were all separate. The departnpn'c of state registration, Registration and
Education, br~rc&t them all to
$
ther. But I think I told you about the registration
and about the lawye who wrote the law and who y~as promtiulg ithaving
one big organizaf.Lon. cam to for infomtio~, you know, about
the practice, what went on, wh& our place was, what our bDa;rd was required
to do, and so forth.
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