She was the first woman and the first nurse to be appointed as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service.

[3] Her role expanded to Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for the 1937–1938 academic year, while Densford took a sabbatical leave to work with the International Council of Nurses in London.

[5]: 130  Petry was instrumental in laying the academic foundations for nursing education and the preparation for teachers and administrators.

Nursing schools were required to submit information and follow guidelines in order to participate, but there was minimal federal supervision of the curriculum.

In exchange for federal funding, participating colleges were required to establish a 24- to 30-month accelerated education program for nurse candidates.

And the women who enrolled had to pledge to "engage in essential nursing, military or civilian, for the duration of the war.

In return for that pledge, the government paid all tuition fees and a monthly stipend that ranged from $15 to $30, depending on the seniority of the nurse candidate, and supplied distinctive uniforms by fashion designer Molly Parnis.

After the war, those activities continued to be beneficial as those hospitals offered employment positions to nurses, breaking the contractor pattern that had been in place.

[2] In May, 1944 in Washington, D.C. there was a joint ceremony marking the observance of the second annual national induction of the Cadet Nurse Corps.

Thomas Parran, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, led the 112,000 cadet nurses in the induction pledge, Petry gave remarks, and others including Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Bolton, Helen Hayes and Bing Crosby paid tribute to them.

Petry was the chief nurse officer for the U.S. Public Health Service after the end of World War II.

In June 1949, Petry became the first nurse and the first woman to be promoted to assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service.

[2] When she retired from government service in 1966, Lucile P. Leone was the Assistant Surgeon General and Chief Nurse Officer.