Evening star., 1942-10-27
New Plans to Speed Solution
OfNurse Shortage Being Drawn
Emergency May Cut Training Months;
Warning Against Too Much LiberoIity

would be well prepared to fit into
our schools of nursing and the field
of public health.
1T Is these applicants with science
degrees and not high school girls
with three years Of education that
we should let our bars down to.
Already we shorten the nursing
course for degree holders by six
months. Their degree means that
they have the equivalent of that
much of our training. We've never
had enough of these. Well need
more after the war"
Frauds Uncovered.
Miss Cowan has daily records to
substantiate her argument that the
board should not relax its require
ments too far if it is to maintain
proper protection to the public She
cited these as recent cases against
which the board has acted:
An applicant who untruthfully
claimed she was graduate of
nurses training school.
Attendants who come in under an
unrecognized waiver of State laws.
Unqualified persons who pose as
qualified nurses.
Operator of a so-called course in
practical nursing who assumed the
name of a graduate of New York
nursing school.
Drug addicts working as nurses.
Miss Cowan reported that the
board already has taken many steps
to fit its requirements to the war
emergency. Outstanding among
these is an effort to reduce to a
minimum the routine required for
nurses who come in from outside the
District to register by reciprocity.
Denies Back Dues Assessed.
The executive secretary said there
is no basis for the charge that many
nurses have been kept from active
duty by requirement that they
pay back dues.
If nurse who returns to active
duty is in good standing, she will
be registered on payment of the
current annual 81 registration fee, "
she explained.
Miss Cowan said the board keeps
a constant lookout for loopholes by
which nurses from States in which
there are stringent regulations may
be registered in the District. She
recalled an instance in which an ap-
plicant from Iowa was informed
that, in order to be registered prop
erly in her home State, she would
have to pay back dues beginning
with 1925. The letter informing her
OF this, however, recalled that she
had been registered there by exami-
nation in 1923, SO the local board
accepted this as evidence of her past
training.
Some States require that nurses
return for an examination in order
to be reinstated at home. Among
these which have come to the at
tention of the local board in its
efforts to lberalize its interpreta-
ton of reciprocity rulings have
been Illinois and Missouri.
Reciprocity Figures.
During the last fiscal year. 454
nurses were registered by reciproc-
ity, as compared to 331 for 1940-4l
214 for 1939-40, and 211 for each Of
the two preceding years. Registra
tions by examination totaled 210 ir
1912, POI for 1904, 207 fol
1939-40, 214 for 1938-39 and zoe
for 1937-38.
Following are figures for the last
seven years on the annual sum
total registration, which includes
nurses annually registered for the
year, plus those who took the ex.
animation and those who came ir
by reciprocity during each year anc
the preceding year:
1853 for 1941-42, 1882 for 1940-41
4,105 for 1939-40, 1888 for 1859
1886 for 1937-38, 1866 for 1936-37
| 3 380 for 1Q35.36