In Manhattan, several wards of the vast new Triboro Hospital for tuberculosis have been standing empty since Januarythere are not enough nurses to run them. In the Midwest some hospitals have closed entire wings, although patients are clamoring for admittancethey have not enough nurses. In Washington, D.C., doctors urged pregnant women to have their babies at home because hospitals are overcrowded, short of nurses.
This shortage of nurses, said Surgeon General Thomas Parran last week, is a "definite menace" to U.S. health. At least 30,000 more nurses, he admitted, are needed right now for the Army, Navy, hospitals, public health work in...