New Britain herald., 1918-06-13
BARS LET DOWN 10
 REGISTERED NURSES
Red Cross Modides Army Re-
 QuifeInentS for Service

Nurses who graduated from regis
 tered training schools prior to Jan
 uary 1, 1918, will be eligible fir en- rOllment with the Red Cross for
 army Or navy service as a result of the modification of requirements an- nOunced today by the American Red
 Cross
 The notification war measure, which was made necessary by the
 present need for nurses, valves the
 technical requirements of registration
 with state examination boards here
 to fore observed by the American Red Cross. This requirement has been
 waived because the demand for thou
 sands of graduate nurses for the Army
 Nurse corps before January 1 made it
 advisable for the American Red Cross,
 as chief recruiting agency for this
 corps, to put itself in the position to
 mobilize quickly for patriotic nursing
 every graduate of a registered school.
 Announcing the change, Miss Jane
 A. Delano, director of the departmen
 of nursing of the American Red Cross, said:
 ''The present situation at the front
 makes it imperative that we hasten
 the enrollme ent of competent nurses
 for the armed forces in every way possible. We need thirty thou sand nurses for the Army and Navy Nurse corps by January l, 1919, to care for our men at the front and for
 the new millions to enter the canton- ments through the draft These nurses must be supplied and will be l supplied as the surgeon generals call for them The department of nursing realizes that the Am rican Red Cross is confronted by a nursing problem which not only concerns military es- | tablishments but has a vital bearing 1 on the health of civilians including l the families of soldiers. These gen. 1 eral nursing needs of the nation it ] believes can best be met by mobilizing l practically our entire nursing re- 1 sources by the enrolment of all grad 1 uates of registered schools whether in 1 diVidually they have registered or not
 This will add important numbers of | nurses to rosters for assignment to i military, public health and American 1 Red Cross field or hospital nurses With all such graduate nurses enrolled l needs of the army and navy can be l met without confusion and with a
 minimum of readjustment in civil hos l plldIS d11u puDlC nedltn nursing aC- l tivities.
 1 Nurses can be assigned the classes
 of service for which they are especially 1 fitted and many married nurses not | registered can be induced to enroll 1 for nursing service in hospitals and l dispensaries. The change ia direct l ly in line with our previous extension l of age limits and with our practise
 of not requiring registration when l enrolling graduate nurses for Red 1 Cross Home Defense nursing. These l previous extensions of eligibility have l enabled us to enroll and assign more ! than ten thousand nurses to the army l and navy without undue disturbance l of the civilian nursing service. The l neW measure making thousands of
 additional nurses eligible will, I am l sure, enable the American Red Cross l to secure the additional military l nurses desired without complicating Q
 unduly the work of those charged with
 maintaining the health and physical efficiency of our civilian population ''