Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1918 — 37,500 NURSES NEEDED [ARTICLE]

37,500 NURSES NEEDED

1,000 Per Cent Increase Is Sought by Government. Nurses Being Called for Duty to Meet Needs of the United States Army. Washington.—Thirty-seven thousand five hundred nurses will be needed in the army nurse corps of the medical department, according to present estimates based on an army of 1,500,000 men. The present strength of the

corps is , about 3,800. Increasing the enrollment by nearly 1,000 per cent In a year is the task confronting the corps. Daily numbers of nurses are being called for to meet immediate needs in army hospitals in the United States and for duty overseas. The present rate of enrollment does not meet the demands. Hospitals at National Guard and National army camps still need 371 nurses to bring the quotas of all up to the minimum considered necessary—6s each. In order to get the enrollments up to the needed number some of the requirements heretofore imposed are being waived. According to estimates of the nursing committee of the general medical board of the council of national defense, there are between 80,000 and 90,000 registered nurses in the country and about 200,000 other graduate and practical nurses. ■ Just as soon as immediate needs ol cantonment hospitals have been cared for a reserve of 100 nurses will be organized for emergency service In the United States. Lakewood hotel, Lakewood, N. J., has been leased by the government for use as a general hospital for the army and provisions will be made for housing the reserve nurses there. This hotel has not yet been turned over to the war department, but will be in a week or so. The necessary alterations will be made as soon as practicable and the 100 nurses for the reserve will be needed in addition to the permanent nursing staff of the hospital.