The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-04

When the committee appointed by the
Hennepin County Medical society issued
it's invitation for nurses to form Phy-
siclans' and Surgeons Nurses bureau
last May, only four responded. The COM
mittee was not discouraged and its most
sanguine hopes have been realized for al
. ready the membership in the bureau num-
bers about eighty. The committee, how
ever hope to increase it to 200 before
the close Of this new year.
The bureau was organized in response
to the needs Of the physicians and sur
geons. 1t is not always the easiest thing
in the world for a doctor to secure a
nurse as soon as he wants one and it is
rather discouraging for busy man to
call up a dozen or more women before he
secures one at liberty to take case.
All this is obviated by the bureau. A
list of members is kept by the librarian
Of the Hennepin County Medical society
and, when a doctor needs a nurse, all he
has to do is to call up the office and ask
for one. II he has any preference he is
at perfect liberty to express 1T and if
the nurse he wants is free she is put on
the case. If he does not ask for any
special nurse, the librarian sends him one
from a list she keeps and the nurse who
has been off duty the longest time Is de-
tailed.
According to the circular issued by the
reau are Ito establish a permanent regis
try for competent nurses; to conduct such
registry impartially and Systematically in
the interests of nurses and physicians; to
furnish constant employment for capable
nurses; to provide educational ia
! cilities for nurses in the way
of special lectures and demon
STATIONS, and reading room priv
leges in the Medical library where cur
rent journals upon nursing will be fur
nished the members Of the bureau
Three classes of nurses are admitted.
In Glass A are only graduate nurses from
some hospital and they pay an annual
fee Of So. They receive for their services
from $40 to $2o a week. In Glass are
nurses who have had hospital training
and experience but have not secured a
diploma. Their fee is 81 and they re-
ceive from $12 to SIS a week. The sec
ondary nurses, women who have secured a
certain amount of experience without at
tending any hospital are in Glass c
where the fee is So and the pay from ST tc
$12 week.
Any nurse desiring to join the bureau
presents her credentials to the commit
Tee with recommendations from two OF
more reputable physicians. and, if they
are satisfactory, she is duly admitted on
payment of the fee, and her name entered
on the rolls. The committee appointed
by the Hennepin County Medical society
to look after the affairs of the bureau in
cludes Drs. R. o. Beard, ]. w. Bell and
George Douglas Read.
While most of the members of the bu-
reau are general nurses, there are some
specialists. A few prefer to take chill
dren's cases, a still smaller group &C
cept cont agious diseases, while the num-
Der of nurses for fever and surgical cases
is large. There are even two or three
small pox nurses in the bureau, and two
of the graduate nurses devote themselves
to massage. One of the nurses has beer
forced to refuse diphtheria patients, as
she contracts the disease every time she
takes a case.
In August the graduate nurses met an6
; organized an association an auxiliary