The Wilmington morning star., 1944-12-21
TODAY and TOMORROW
By WALTER LIPPMANN

The last thing our people viii
put up with is that sick and wound
ed American soldiers should suffer
because the Army cannot fine
enough women to nurse them. Yet
am reporting only the stark truth,
which is well known to the Army
and to the leaders of the medical
profession, when l say that in mill
| tary hospitals at home and abroad
our men are not recelveng the
nursing care they must have, and
that with casualties increasing IN
number and in seriousness, this
will mean for many of the men
brought in from the battlefields that
their recovery is delayed, and even
jeporadized.
No one will question this state
ment. So great is the shortage
of women who are volunteering
to nurse the sick and wounded
that the Army has had twice to
lower its own standard of nursing
care. In 1941 the standard called
for 120 nurses and 500 enlisted
men in each general military hos
pital of 1000 beds. By 1912 the
Army had had to reduce the num-
Der of nurses to 105. Today in
1914, when our casualties are
mounting, the Army has been
driven to reduce its theoretical
standard to eighty-three nurses
and $50 enlisted men.
Instead of one nurse to eight
beds the Army has had to come
down to asking Though it is not
getting) one nurse to twelve beds.
That this is 4 low standard is
obvious when we realize that in
civilian hopsitals a ratio of one
nurse to four or five patients is
considered just barely sufficient.
But even this standard to which
the Army has been reduced is not
being met. To meet it the Army
Nurse Corps should now have
$4,000 nurses. In fact it has Al, 500.
Instead of a ratio-low enough in
all conscience-of one to twelve,
the average in fact in continental
United States is now one to twenty
two.
In order to grasp the meaning
of these figures the reader must
that in every hospital
many nurses work in the operating
rooms and in other essential serv-
ices, and are not available to nurse
the patients. He must remember
also that no nurse can work more
than eight or twelve hours in each
day. So when he hears that the
Army ratio Of nurses to patients
is one to twenty-five, he must
not ina CINE that there is a nurse
available in each ward for every
twenty-five sick or wounded men.
For example, at the Percy Jones
General Hospital, which is one
Of the most important in this
country, there are now on duty
during the day one nurse. and one
assistant, who have to care for
each sixty to seventy patients.
During the night one nurse has
10 care for about 100 patients. So
serious is the shortage of women
who will nurse for the Army that
we have actually got to the point
where we are preparing to send
hospital units abroad without any
nurses, leaving it to the chief sur
geon in France to make the best
Of this with the insufficient num-
Der Of overWorked nurses he al
ready has over there.
There are plenty of women in
the United States who are already
trained nurses. There are plenty
Of trained nurses aides. There are
who are being trained as
nurses and more can be trained
as nurses aides. The problem is
soluble. But it is not being solved,
and there is no prospect that it is
going to be solved by issuing ap-
peals to the nurses to enlist in the
Army. The problem can be solved
only if the American people under
stand it, and then make up their
minds to see that it is solved. This
will demand very plain speaking.
About two months ago there
were in the United States some
$1,000 nurses who were declared
to be not engaged in essential
nursing in civil life, and therefore
eligible for the Army if they could
pass the physical and other tests.
The decision about who was essen
tlal was not made in Washington:
1t was made by responsible medi-
cal and nursing associations in
each community, and we are en-
titled to assume that they took
no unnecessary risks with the
health of their own communities.
The Army made an appeal to each
OF these $1,000 women. The Army
received 760 answers, and 227
signed up. Out of the whole $1,000
the Army got less new recruits
than there were nurses who for
various good reasons had to leave