Evening star., 1947-04-27
Nurses Schools
Fall EnroIlnlents'
Show Big Gain
Hospitals Receive
147 Applications
Months in Advance
Bv Thomas G. Buchonon

By Thomas q. buchonon
Relief is in sight for the city,s
hosnitals, harassed by shortage Of
nurses since before the war.
Every nursing school in town has
more prospective students for next
fails course today - nearly five
months in advance-than were en-
rolled in their most recent classes.
These applicants already have
heen tentatively approved for ac-
ceptance. They have applied for
maIly for admission, and in many
cases they have been interviewed
and rated as good prospects. Some
already have passed the mental apti-
tude tests required by the Nurses
Examining Board.
The total of applicants In this
category for Emergency, Gallinger,
GARFIELD, Georgetown, Providence
and sibley Hospitals Is LAT, compared
To 90 students admitted at the last
enrolment.
700 Sign Up for Test.
No comparable figures are avail
able at Freedmen's and st. Eliza
beth Hospitals, where applicants
must take civil service examinations,
but more than TOO candidates already
have signed up for the st. Elizabeth
test. Only Is students were enrolled
at st. Elizabeth last fall.
In addition, there are hundreds
of others who have expressed in
terest in the nursing school courses
but have not been given the re-
olired academic and physical tests
The situation confirms the op-
timism expressed last month by the
Nurses Examining Board, which said
1t believed tthe enrolment Of stu
dent nurses will be reasonably in
creased for the fall classes"
Commissioner Guy Mason had
criticized the board for opposing the
Joint training of graduate and prac-
tical nurses, a policy he described
as contributing to the local nursing
shortage. He also advocated lower
educational requirements.
Lower Standards Opposed.
The board contended the drop in
student enrolment since the war
was only temporary, and argued that
the present shortage should not
stampede the public into lowering
standards Of nursing instruction.
Interviews with superintendent of
nursing and other hospital officials
yesterday brought optimistic pre-
dictions about the quality of the
new candidates, as well as the num-
ber of applicants.
4 Miss Anne Murphy, director of
the Georgetown School of Nursing
said her candidates were ''of very
high caliber this year" and named
several with outstanding academic
records. Mrs. Elsie Casassa, direct
or of nursing at Sibley, described
the group as better than the pre-
war average"
Miss Shelby Patton, director of
nursing at Garfield, said she had 13
approved applications and quite a
folder of inquiries" already. Gar
fields February class drew only nine
students, but Miss Patton said the
outlook for this fall was better than
last year, when 80 students were en-
rolled
Inquiries Average a Day.
This was in contrast with the pes
simism expressed last month by Gar
field Administrator F. j. Eisenman,
who cited the drop in student nurse
enrolment in requesting from the
Nurses Examining Board authority
to set up a course for nursing aides
At the Graduate Nurses ASsocia-
ton, whose recruiting program has
sought to increase student nurse en-
rollment, officials said they were re-
ceiving an average Of five inquiries
q day for information.
Miss Edith M. Beattie, executive
of the nurses group, called
the outlook for next falls classes
very encouraging. While the increase
in student enrolment will not bring
immediate relief to understaffed hos
pital wards, she pointed out, the
young nurses will give supervised
care to patients after they pass
their six months probationary
period.
: Once the local nursing schools are
able to fill their quotas and sufficient
young nurses are entering the pro-
fession, thG Washington nursing
situation again will be sound, she
concluded