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A group of registered nurses gathered at the home of Mrs. Julie King on April 19, 1917, to discuss plans to aid the Red Cross in helping the soldiers overseas fighting in World War I. Seventeen nurses attended and they named themselves "The Honolulu Nurses Club." This was the nucleus that formed the future Hawai'i Nurses' Association, which in 1965 had grown to a membership of 915. Fifteen of the original seventeen members were:
Janet Dewar, Rebecca Dobson, Marie Duchatel, Mary Johnson, Julie King, Emily Kemp, June Sinclair Anna Torbol, Teresa Malcon, Elizabeth Williams, Annetta McClinstock , Mary Merrill, Lily Morris, Mabel Smyth and Olive Sill Mary Johnson was the first president.
The object of the club was "to offer services to the Red Cross, establish a benefit for a nurses fund and to promote friendly intercourse among members to the end that the profession may receive respect and support from its own ranks as well as the community." The dues were ten cents a month. On April 30, 1917, 67 more members were admitted. The committees set up at the first meeting were the Sick and Relief Committee, Flowers and Visiting Committee, Home and Entertainment Committee, and the Red Cross Committee.
In 1918, the organization was granted a charter of incorporation under the name of Nurses' Association, Territory of Hawai'i, Inc. The Association joined the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1931, af ter the ANA approved their constitution and bylaws. Hawai'i became a State in 1959 and in 1960, the Nurses' Association, Territory of Hawai'i, under the leadership of then president Sister Maureen Keleher, changed the Association's name to Hawai'i Nurses' Association.
In 1964, the Association, at the request of registered nurses working at Kaiser Foundation Hospital and Kuakini Hospital, became involved in collective bargaining through the Council on Economic and General Welfare. In 1979, the Collective Bargaining Organization of the Hawai'i Nurses' Association was recognized within the Association bylaws, as a distinct entity with its own Board of Directors.
Today, HNA has a statewide membership of more than 4,500 members and growing.
