Asks 1,000,000 housekeepers for the sick

• Article by Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson to discuss the problem of the shortage of nurses• He believes that half of the influenza deaths in Chicago and across the US were the result of a lack of good nursing care• In 1907, after several failed attempts, the Illinois legislature passed a law creating a board to register nurses; nurses needed at least two years training in order to be registered• Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson opposed the bill because he believed it would create conditions whereby those of modest means would not be able to afford nursing care• “The nurse has become a necessity in our present civilization, but her cost has made her services a luxury that only those in good circumstances can enjoy.”• “It has been well said that women are natural nurses. This is true. As a matter of fact, the principal business of a nurse is to follow the doctor’s instructions. She does not diagnose or prescribe.”• Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson believes that any woman with intensive training can be made a competent nurse in a matter of 3-6 months, not 3 years• His rationale is that the military can turn out competent officers in three months, so nurses should be able to do the same• Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson has several suggestions for the creation of this “army of practical nurses,” as he calls it:o Hospitals should immediately change their curriculum so that they can train two classes of nurses; one track would be registered nurses and would take two rather than the current three years of training, and the other would be practical nursing and would require 6-months of intensive training; the requirements for entrance into the practical nursing track “should not necessarily be that of a high school graduate. But knowledge of practical housekeeping and domestic science should be considered as important requirements.”o The state legislature needs to change current nursing law to allow for the training of these two tracks of nurses and to lower the number of years of training required for RNso If the state legislature does not act, then Chicago should enact a law licensing practical nurses in much the same way that it licenses undertakers; licenses should be issued by the dept. of health after the applicant has passed a practical nurse examo Practical nurses should receive one-half the pay of RNsNewspaper articleA1, A