Sacred Twenty

Shortly after the formation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901, the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) campaigned to create a similar organization for itself.

[2] They were initially headed by Esther Voorhees Hasson, a former member of the Army Nurse Corps, who was appointed as superintendent.

[10] Some years after the Sacred Twenty's formation in 1908, however, female nurses began to champion this role in the Hospital Corps, even abroad.

[10] In addition to administering medical care on the battlefield and training of local nurses to do the same, the Sacred Twenty also implemented a number of other programs during their service.

Bowman is also noted to have pushed for Navy nurses to continue their education and keep up-to-date with developments in medicine by taking postgraduate courses.