Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-23
NURSES EXAMINING BOARD
FAILS TO RENoM-
MATE MRS. FLEETWOOD.
Colored Race Now Without Represen.
tation-District Commissioners
Restricted by the Law.

After July I next the examining board
Of the Graduate Nurses Association of the
District of Columbia will be without a
colored member. The board was created
by Congress last February, and when the
board was selected few weeks later by
the Commissioners, from nominations sub
mitted by the nurses association, Mrs.
Sarah Fleetwood, colored trained nurse,
was among the number Her term expires
the Both instant, and Miss Georgina Graham
of the Garfield Memorial Hospital School
for Nurses has been selected to succeed
her.
The Commissioners, 1t is said, regret that
Mrs. Fleetwood was not renominated. How
ever, the bill governing the trained and
registered nurses of the District was not of
the Commissioners making, and they are
without any supervision authority over
the body, except that of appointing the
board of examiners, and that privilege Is
limited to appointing only those nominated
by the nurses association, so the Commits
sioners have practically nothing to do with
this body, but they have announced their
intention of having the law amended.
Matter of Regret.
Commissioner Mcfarland yesterday aft
ernoon announced that Mrs. Fleetwood will
not be reappointed, much to his regret.
In anticipation of the vacancy the Gradu-
ate Nurses Association sent to the Com
missioners a list of three names, as re-
CURED by law, from which the Commits
sioners must make the appointment They
were Miss Georgina Graham of the Garfield
Memorial Hospital School for Nurses. Miss
Bertha Orlo-Smith of the Rochester Homeo-
pathic Hospital School for Nurses Roches-
ter, N. Y, and Miss Sallie F. Melhorn of
the Columbia and Children's Hospitals
School of Nursing. Finding that Mrs.
Fleetwood was not renominated by the
Graduate Nurses Association, and that no
one else was nominated representing the
colored trained nurses, nor the Freedmens
Hospital Training School for Nurses, Com
missioner Mcfarland, before laying the
list of nominees before the Commissioners,
informally asked the Graduate Nurses AS
ISOLATION to reconsider its action and sug-
geSt among the three names one represent
ing the interest which Mrs. Fleetwood now
represents upon the board, stating at the
same time that no adverse criticism what
ever respecting the service of Mrs. Fleet
wood had come to the notice Of the Com
miSSionerS.
Reply From Association.
Commissioner mcfarland has received
from Miss Elizabeth M. Hewitt, secretary
of the Graduate Nurses Association, a let
ter in which she said:
AT a meeting of the Graduate Nurses
Association of the District of Columbia,
called at your suggestion to reconsider
nurses examining board on July l, 1t was
decided that the association having COM
piled with the requirements Of the bill no
further action is necessary.
LAS an association, there IL no objection
to colored member on the board, and no
doubt their representatives will see to 1t
in future that they are included in the list
Of nominees.
Although it is we'll known that at the
semi-annual meeting of the association in
May nominations for the examining board
were in order no colored member was pres
emit"
Commissioner Mcfarland has replied that
he regrets exceedingly that by this decision
the Commissioners are restricted to Sc
lection from the three nominees presented
by the association under the law, and
therefore that 1t is not in their power to
reappoint Mrs. Fleetwood or to appoint
some other representative Of the Freed
mems Hospital Training School and the
colored trained nurses.
Graduates Of Freedmen's School.
DR.. w. A. Warfield, sergeon-in-chief of
the Freedmen's Hospital, has informed
Commissioner Mcfarland that the average
number Of pupils in the Freedmen's Hos
pital training School for Nurses Is thirty,
and that from twelve to eighteen nurses
are graduated annually, and that the total
number graduated from the school Is 1853.
Commissioner Macfarland yesterday stat
ed the facts to the Commissioners, and
Commissioners to the nominations of the
association, there was nothing for him to
do but recommend that one Of the persons
nominated be selected, and he therefore
recommended the first on the list, Miss
Graham.