Evening star., 1951-10-17

An appeal to TOO inactive grad
uate nurses in the Washington
area has failed to relieve the city's
critical nurse shortage, a hospi-
|tal survey showed today.
The Washington Graduate
Nurses Association. which made
the return-to-work appeal in
July. said today only about Is
retired nurses have come back to
hospital work. Quotas in all
IWashington-area hospitals re-
main untitled.
Most hospitals have limped
along during the long standing
nurse shortage with part-time
help from graduate nurses, many
Iof whom are married and have
children to care for at home.
Nurses aides. practical nurses and
more orderlies have been added to
most stats to give the fewer reg
Iistered nurses more time to care
for patients.
The nurse shortage has reached
even into the Red Gross blood
donor drive, The Star revealed
yesterday. Some prospective
donors face possible delay because
there aren't enough nurses to keep
up with them. The Red Cross al
lows only registered nurses to dc
this kind of work.
Teamwork Emphasized.
With little change expected, one
hospital administrator said en-
lphasis now should be put on "a
new concept of teamwork" be-
tween graduate nurses and their
non-professional assistants, rather
than relying on future nursing
school graduates alone to staff
the Nations hospitals.
Emergency Hospital, which has
the citys busiest emergency room,
has 78 general and special duty
nurses on its graduate staff. A
hospital spokesman said the nor
NAL staff Of 100 nurses would be
utopia"
The situation at Emergency has
improved somewhat. however, ac-
|cording to James G. Capossela,
hospital administrator. He said
Is of some 80 beds closed this
summer because of an even worse
nurse shortage during the vaca-
ton months have been re-opened,
and about Is more will be put
back in use this week.
All officials stressed that COM
|parison of one hospital staff
against another would not neces-
|sarily show the extent of the
nurse shortage in individual hos
pitfalls. The number of type of
patients and the number of
trained, non-professional nursing
assistants at different hospitals
makes direct comparison difficult.
the spokesmen said.
Old Yardstick Fails.
The old yardstick of number OF
patients against number of grad
uate nurses no longer is valid
one. one hospital administrator
said. because of the change in
makeup of hospital staffs. A hos
pital with fewer registered nurses
than another hospital of the same
size might be in better shape be-
cause Of a large non-profess;onal
staff.
Three and a half hours of grad
uate nurse care in each 24-hour
period was given as a standard at
one large hospital.
Heads of all District-area hos
pitfalls declared there is not a bed
shortage and explained that their
aim is to give better nursing
service with fewer nurses. even
if it means closing beds.
Victor Ludewig, administrator
of George Washington University
Hospital. where II beds have been
closed since May, said GW's staff
would need 80 to IS nurses to open
the beds. A year ago the hospital
had Is more nurses than it does
now but still had ~ beds out of
service.
"The beds we do have open now
are better staffed." Mr.. Ludewig
declared. 1--WE are trying to do
a good job with what we have"
Class Held Open.
He also emphasized the i'm
|portance of non-professional nurs-
ing help and pointed out enroll
ment in the practical nursing
course at the Districts Burdick
Vocational High School, Thir-
teenth and Allison streets NV,
lis being held open through this