SNAI was established in 1929 during the TNAI Annual Conference in Madras. Miss L. Rina  Jeans, Nursing Superintendent, Government General Hospital, Madras, was the first Honorary Organizing Secretary of SNAI. The pioneer unit of SNA
 was established in the General Hospital, Madras. The first SNA annual Conference was held in Delhi in November 1932. The first one-day SNA Conference was held in 1951, and the first Biennial SNA Conference was held at Nagpur in 1961.

Essentially, a Student Nurses Association (SNA) in a nursing college is a student-led organization designed to: