Daily AncestorNurse
A nurse cared for the sick, but in older records the word also meant a woman who looked after other people's children, and before the 1870s most nurses were untrained.
Before the 1870s most women nursing in American hospitals were untrained, and much nursing was paid care given in private homes. The first American professionally trained nurse graduated in 1873, and hospital training schools then spread.
An older sense of nurse is a woman caring for someone else's children. To keep these apart, the 1930 and 1940 census instructions told enumerators always to specify trained nurse, practical nurse or child's nurse.
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Daily Ancestor. "Nurse." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/nurse. Last checked 2026-10-10.