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Show Continuation of Nurses Training to Provide for Thousands of Qualified Hospital Assistants By Walter A. 8head, WNU Staff Correspondent A total of 112,000 girls and young women, of which number 59 percent or approximately 66,100 come from small towns of 5,000 and under population, are enrolled in the nurses training courses sponsored by the United States Public Health Service of the Federal Security Agency. These girls are entrained in what is more commonly called the cadet nurses training corps and the erroneous impression has been largely fostered that they must enter the army and navy service upon graduation. This is untrue, however, since the law providing for the training of these nurses says they are trained for the armed forces, governmental and civilian hospital, health agencies, war industries and for other purposes, course to provide additional nun, during the emergency, particularly from the glrll themselves. Most complaint, Mrs. Mulcahy remarked, comes from parents who believe the Slris should have the same pay as privates in the ami, $50 per month; that the girls are not subject to veterans' benefits and that they are not entitled to free mall. To offset these, however, It U pointed out that the girls are receiving re-ceiving training for a life work at the expense of their government and that despite need for nurses In the armed forces, they are still free agents to practice when and where they will, or to not practice at all If they should so desire, If they marry, or for any other reason. and where the nurses decide to practice .Is entirely voluntary on their part They may decide to stay In civilian practice, or to go into the army or navy, but emphasig Is placed upon the voluntary nature of their service. As Is the case In most war projects, proj-ects, particularly where money for operation comes from gome other source, there I considerable confusion con-fusion In the Public Health Service as this is written as to whether the governmental training of nurses under un-der the act will continue. The law setting up the program provides that the act shall cease upon the date of termination of hostilities hos-tilities In the present war as determined deter-mined by the President or upon such earlier date as the congress, by concurrent resolution, or the President may designate. The student nurses already enrolled en-rolled In the program will be able to finish their courses because the law provides that all student nurses who were receiving training or course ninety days prior to end of hostilities hostili-ties or declaration by congress or the President may be graduated. No further enrollments are being accepted In the cadet nurses' corps. Those with more than 90 days of training, as of V-J day, will be retained re-tained In their present hospital assignments, as-signments, until they have completed complet-ed the 80 to 30 mouths of training provided. A movement has been started In congress to have the life of the cadet nurses' corps continued during peace time. Thousands to Graduate. Thirty thousand young women will become graduate nurses this fall as the new class prepares to enter the course and while the armed forces likely will urge these graduates to enter upon hospital duty within the services. It may be that the need elsewhere will be more urgent At any rate, it will be optional with the graduate as to where they go. Cost of sending these nurses through a 24-month course Is approximately approx-imately $1250 to the government, so the cost of the training so far has been about $1.W,000,000. In addition, the government, with Lanhani Act funds from the Federal Works Agency, Agen-cy, has constructed some 230 new projects, Including buildings, laboratories labora-tories and other equipment at a cost to the government of $17,397,202 and to the private hospitals of successful efforts In the war and has been the most reasonable In point of cost to the government. The public relations program Is In charge of Mrs. Jean Henderson Mulcahy of Jacksonville, Fla., a former newspaper news-paper woman, who prior to her coming com-ing to Washington was for five years director of public relations for the Florida State Board of Health. The cadet nurse corps Is one of the few organizations In the war which has been given an official flag and by action of Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General, and approved ap-proved by Paul V. McNutt, Federal Security Administrator, the flag was ordered as a white rectangular field, with a white Maltese cross centered on a red oval superimposed on a rectangle of gray and below the cross Insignia the words "Cadet Nurse Corps" In reglmentRl red lettering. let-tering. The official flag Is ordered displayed dis-played at all Induction ceremonies, graduation exercises, parades and at such other times as authorized by the Surgeon General. Providence Was First. The first hospital in the United States to be approved for Installation Installa-tion of a cadet nurse corps was Providence Hospital In Washington, 1). C, the second being Johns Hopkins Hop-kins In Baltimore. According to Mrs. Mulcahy, the Providence Hospital corps Is one of the model organizations In the country coun-try and under the direction of Sister Rita, superintendent of nurses there for the past 12 years, the cadet corps has been Integrated with the five-year university course which was also inaugurated by Sister Rita several years ago. In other words, at Providence most applicants for cadet nurse training are selected from among girls who have had at least two years' college or university education and when they graduate they not only receive the coveted "RN" or registered nurse degree, but they receive a bachelor of science degree from Catholic University of America, with which the hospital has affiliated for the course. Out of the more than 165 girls In the class at Providence, 107 are college girls. Sister Rita explains that out of an avalanche of applications, she was able to make careful selection of girls with college training, that they make better students and that as a $8,200,783. The new construction has provided facilities for 12,144 students. What will come of these new buildings when the emergency ends has not definitely been decided. Likely they will be declared surplus war properties and be disposed of through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation with preference or priority pri-ority being given to the Institution where they are constructed. Under the provisions of the law, the government pays hospitals hos-pitals which have inaugurated a nurses' training course under the provisions of the act, for maintenance, meals, laundry and rooms and for Indoor and outdoor out-door uniforms, text books and other fees. Also, the government pays the hospitals, which in turn pay the girls, $15 per month for the first nine months and $20 per month for the next fifteen months, or until their training Is completed. Where the course runs more than two years, girls get $30 per month for the last ix months. Cost of maintenance averages approximately $35 to $40 per month for each girl. At the present time the public health service has approved 1110 nurses' training schools out of a possible pos-sible 1250 schools In 6500 hospitals hos-pitals in the United States. And, according to records of the public pub-lic health service, about 80 per cent of the nursing service In hospitals where such training schools are In progress comes from the cadet nurse students. The course also makes provision for post-graduate courses for graduate gradu-ate nurses to become supervisors or teachers and approximately 20,000 have been enrolled In these courses, which are short, lasting up to approximately ap-proximately six mouths. According to Information here, the recruitment of nurses for these courses has been one of the most result of this careful selection Providence Prov-idence Hospital has had no disciplinary disci-plinary problems such as has been true In other hospitals where such care was not exercised In th? elet tlon of applicants. It may be that the experience with the cadet nurse corps at Providence Provi-dence will mark a turning point In the training of nurses throughout the country, since Sister BIta Is planning to abandon the ordinary three-year nurses training course which has been In vogue at most nurse training schools, la favor of the longer course and a college science degree. Although the law provides for an Insignia which may be worn on both indoor and outdoor uniforms, the students at Providence wear the same uniforms as students to regular regu-lar training without Insignia, and there is no distinction whatever made either In their training or In the treatment they receive by the hospital. And few if any of the cadet nurses at this school wear their outdoor uniforms to make them distinctive from the other girls In a total training school of 250 girls. Large Urban Class. In recruitment of the cadet nurses, according to public health service records, 40 per cent come from towns and rural communities of less than 2500 population. An additional 19 per cent come from towns of less than 5000 and only 9 per cent come from the large metropolitan cities. Mrs. Mulcahy explained this unusual un-usual proportion of trainees from the small towns In the fact that parents par-ents felt that their daughters would be sheltered In proper environments, that many of them had not been away from their home town communities com-munities and that they felt safer and more secure In. permitting their entrance In the cadet nurse corps, boj.h as a patriotic move and as a security for their future. There has been little complaint incident to this important training |