Beyond Nursing

Katharine Densford believed that nurses had a responsibility to the greater community: "set goals for yourself and seek attainment, do well your assumed tasks and contribute to the ongoing democratic society." She corresponded with state and national legislators, and worked actively on a number of broad national and international initiatives. For example:

• She was instrumental in the development of Minnesota's response to the US Army Cadet Nurse Corps, generating the largest corps and the first to reach its quota.
• On a number of occasions, she represented the Cadet Corps at political functions.
• She attended the 1945 Inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt.
• She met with Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.
• She was an observer at the Conference on International Organization for the Formation of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945.
• She attended a conference at the White House with Mrs. Harry Truman and thirty-two ambassadors of foreign countries.
• She participated in the First National Conference on Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization through the United Nations.