Nursing shortage, circa 1915.

Nursing shortages have plagued the occupation from its infancy. Analysis of works by M. Adelaide Nutting and Isabel Stewart reveals factors that early leaders identified as concerns or causes of past shortages. Although both Stewart and Nutting identified serious problems in the nature of nursing work, both recommended improvements in nursing's educational programs along with publicity campaigns as possible solutions. A case study of the Peter Bent Brigham School in Boston suggests that early leaders focussed on these strategies for change because the position of nursing in the hospital left them powerless to initiate meaningful change in the nature of nursing work.