Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-23
Drive Planned Here
To Fill Depleted Ranks
OF Nurses Aide Corps

A determined campaign to recruit
more District Red Cross nurses
aides in an effort to help out WASH
ington hospitals until their nurses
return from service will be launched
in January, Mrs. Millard Tydings,
wife Of the Maryland Senator and
chairman of the District Red Cross
Nurses Aide Corps, announced last
night.
The supply of nurses aides is
dwindling, Mrs. Tydings said, at a
time when the hospitals are still
desperately short of nurses. A re-
cent survey showed that only % of
the $50 nurses who left Washington
to enter the armed forces have re-
turned to the hospitals here.
Corps Drops to $780,.
1--WE have never before been in a
position where we had no recruits"
Mrs. Tydings said. I'VE have had
no classes since VI day and nurses
aides have been leaving us ever
since We day."
From peak Of 1000 in the Dis
trict corps last spring, with five
classes to supply more aides, the
corps has now dropped to 500 &C
tive members and no classes to sup
ply new graduates, Mrs. Tydings re-
ported.
THE corps is dying for lack of
new blood" she said. I'VE are going
to try to recruit in January to keep
it alive. Unless we are successful,
aides who have put in thousands of
hours and are now tired out will
have to keep on working and our
service will be spread even thinner"
She said women were dropping
from the corps as their husbands
returned from service and many of
them have left Washington.
Hospitals Fear Loss.
At It's peak, the corps had nurses
aides in Is hospitals. The number
has been reduced to nine hospitals,
all Of which, Mrs. Tydings said, are
insistent that the aides stay on the
job. The hospitals have assured
the corps, Mrs. Tydings added, that
patients will suffer definite hard
ship If the aides do not continue
to serve in the hospitals for at least
six more months.
Mrs. Tydings cited the Boiling
Field Station Hospital with 225
patients as one of the hospitals
where aides must continue to serve.
She said the hospital had 20 nurses,
II Of whom are scheduled to leave
this week. WACS, who worked In
the hospital also have been denob-
ilized.
Gallinger Hospital, the corps
chairman reported, was the worst
sufferer from the continued shortage
of nurses. Gallinger reported re-
Gently that none of the 10 nurses
who left the hospital to enter the
armed forces have returned.
In order to hold the interest of
capped" nurses aides and to give
Gallinger more help, the corps has
arranged for a postgraduate course
at the hospital where graduate
aides, recommended by their cap
tains, can select five out OF eight
types of nursing care. They must
give 40 hours of supervised work in
each branch Of service they select
and will be given an opportunity to
attend the medical lectures with
the student nurses.
New Glasses Planned.
Most hospitals believe it will be
at least a year before they can give
real peacetime nursing service"
Mrs. Tydings said. I'm the mean
time they are relying on us so that
the nurses, they do have can take
care OF more patients"
The corps viii start interviewing
recruits on January 7 from 40 am
to 4 pm. at Walsh House, 1920
Massachusetts, avenue NV. The
class for which these women are
being recruited will start January
Ia. Mrs. Tydings explained that
this class will train women for day.
time service. A class for night aides
will follow.