AWM137 2/2 - Historical information and general development of the RAAF Nursing Service - Letters and Histories for Press - Public Relations World War 2 - Part 2

DEPARTMENT OF AIR.
MINUTE PAPER.
(This side only to be written on.)
19228 3.42 St 9116 G.P.S
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIAN AIR WAR EFFORT - AUGUST, 1944.
Matron-in-Chief.
A brochure entitled "Australian Air War Effort"
is prepared each half year for submission to the Prime Minister
and copies are distributed overseas and to Board members and
other interested Departments.
2. In past editions, reference has been made in
other chapters to the activities of this Directorate, but
it is now considered advisable that the following additional
chapters should be incorporated in future editions -
General Aspects, Flying Research, Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, Rehabilitation, and Nursing 
Service.
3. These chapters (which should not be longer than
four or five pages) should follow the general tenor of the
war effort, and are to be produced as at 3lst. August, 1944.
4.  It is requested that you furnish the D.G.M.S.
not later than 21st. August, a chapter in duplicate, typed
in double spacing, on the activities of your section on the
lines indicated in paragraph 3.
[[P J S McGuire]]
15.8.44.
Group Captain, D/D.G.M.S.
 

(EC)
DEPARTMENT OF AIR.
MINUTE PAPER.
(This side only to be written on.)
19228 3.42 St 9116 G.P.S
SUBJECT:
MATRON-IN-CHIEF, RAAF NURSING SERVICE:
Article forwarded by you for inclusion in the
"Information Bulletin For Red Cross Nurses" has been approved
for publication and forwarded to the Medical Director of the
Australian Red Cross Society.
M.D. Cail.
(L.F. McDonnell)
Wing/Cdr.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS.
31/8/44.
[*4 SEP 1944*]
 

Loose.
R.A.A.F. NURSING SERVICE.
D.P.R.
It is requested that, if your approval is given to 
the attached article which is being forwarded to the Medical Director
of the Australian Red Cross Society who will send it to Geneva for
publication in the "Information Bulletin for Red Cross Nurses", it
be enclosed, with covering letter in the attached enveloped and
despatched.
2.  If alterations are made, it would be appreciated if
Matron-in-Chief's office could be notified accordingly.
Matron,
for Matron-in-Chief,
R.A.A.F. Nursing Service.
22/8/44
 

COPY for PRESS CUTTINGS FILE:
DRAFT as forwarded to Red Gross Society for inclusion in "Information Bulletin
for Red Cross Nurses" - printed in Geneva.
[*through  DPR.
22/8/44*]
R.A.A.F. NURSING SERVICE.
Tho Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service was formed in
1940, when, with rapid growth of the Royal Australian Air Force, the need
for increased medical attention within the Service became apparent.
Formed on similar lines to the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force
Nursing Service in England, from a very small number in 1940, the R.A.A.F.
Nursing Service now numbers several hundred members, with a long list of
applicants desiring appointment.
Each applicant must be a fully trained and State Registered Nurse,
between the ages of 21 and 40 years. She must have had approved experience
in her profession, be well recommended regarding both her character and her
work, and must conform, physically, to a high medical standard.
Appointed to the R.A.A.F. Nursing Service with officer status, the
nurses now enter a Medical Training Unit for a period of five weeks, where,
with newly appointed Medical officers, they attend an intensive course of
lectures on Service Administration, Tropical Diseases, Camp Hygiene, Chemical
Warfare and other specialized subjects.
During this period the nurses are equipped with their Service Uniform.
The out-door dress consists of a neatly tailored uniform - in winter "Air Force"
blue; in summer "drab", worn with the badges of rank and medical insignia
(a winged Staff of Mercury). The in-door uniform (at one time white) has been
changed to a beige cotton overall, with blue cape, and white head-dress.
Trim and nest, the nurses are very proud of their uniform.
Having completed the initial course of instruction and been equipped,
the nurses are posted to the Units at which they are required to serve. This
may be anywhere within or beyond the Commonwealth of Australia.
Under the flag bearing the Red Cross, men and women of the-Air Force
are nursed in large Base Hospitals in the cities, in Hospitals and Sick Quarters
on Air Force Stations, in isolated and remote parts of Australia, in Medical
Clearing and Medical Receiving Stations in forward areas. In any or all of
these, the members of the R.A.A.F. Nursing Service are stationed. They have
accompanied the troops overseas, forming part of the medical escort staff,
and are flying with the Medical Air Evacuation Unit, into forward areas, to
bring the sick and wounded back to base hospitals for treatment. The latter
is an arduous task and calls for great physical endurance. For this, the
nurses are specially selected and trained.
Apart from actual nursing duties, members of the R.A.A.F. Nursing
Service serve in other capacities, as Administrative Officers, Tutor Sisters
(instructing both male and female volunteer members of the Service in nursing
duties), Dieticians in charge of the diet kitchens in the larger Hospitals,
and Home Sisters caring for the well-being of their fellow nurses; and others
also play an important part at the Rehabilitation Centres where sick and
wounded men are fitted to take an active part in the world again.
Required to serve, if necessary, for 24 hours a day, with leave a
privilege, the nurses are usually granted one day's leave each week, with four
days leave every three months. They are encouraged, when off duty, to take
an active part in recreational sport, and in the educational and recreational
facilities provided by the Service. Keenly interested in Post War Reconstruction, 
many members of the R.A.A.F. Nursing Service hope to collaborate
in this work. Their training as nurses, and the experience gained during the
past years, both in medical spheres and in the handling and understanding of
their fellow beings, should prove of great assistance in this, the work yet
to be done.
 

R.A.A.F. NURSING SERVICE: NEW GUINEA ARTICLE:

Directorate of PUBLIC RELATIONS:
(Attention Flt./Officer Hunter)
Attached hereto is article entitled "Life
with a M.R.S. of the R.A.A.F. in New Guinea", for attention.
L.K.D.
Principal Matron,
for Matron-in-Chief,
R.A.A.F. Nursing Service.
 

DEPARTMENT OF AIR
PRESS
Melbourne,
23rd August, 1940.
Directorate of
Public Relations
Bulletin No.12.
NURSING SERVICE
FORMED BY R.A.A.F.
The establishment of a Royal Australian Air Force
Nursing Service was announced today by the Minister for Air
(Mr. Fadden).
Modelled on the lines of Princess Mary's Royal Air
Force Nursing Service and the Australian Army Nursing Service,
the new unit will be an integral part of the R.A.A.F. The
nurses will be posted at existing air-force hospitals at main
stations and other establishments. Special living quarters
and domestic arrangements will be provided.
Miss M. I. Lang, who has been Matron of the Police
Hospital, Melbourne, for several years and who was on active
service in the last war, has been appointed Matron-in-Chief.
In the first instance, members of the R.A.A.F.
Nursing Service are being chosen from suitable candidates on
the reserve of the Australian Army Nursing Service. Others
will be selected from suitable applicants, and will be posted
for duty at major air-force centres in New South Wales and
Victoria during the early stages of the plan, and in other
areas later as required.
Pending the selection and appointment of members of
the R.A.A.F. Nursing Service, some civilian nurses have already
been engaged for duty at the larger air-force stations. These
will be replaced later when R.A.A.F. nurses have been appointed.
"The creation of the R.A.A.F. Nursing Service is a
logical development of the expansion of the air arm," said
Mr. Fadden. "With many hundreds - sometimes thousands - of
men on duty at the various stations and larger training schools,
it is essential that the best possible nursing care should be
available within the confines of the establishments.
"The nurses will wear an air-force blue uniform, the
final details of which have not yet been settled. Banks and
(0297/40)    Page 2. . . . . . 

-Page.2 -
rates of pay will be: Matron 15/- a day, Senior sister
12/6, Sister 10/-, Staff nurse 8/6.
"Rations, quarters, fuel, light and medical
attention will be provided free, and an allowance will
be made for the necessary uniform. If quarters and rations
are not provided, a subsistence allowance will be payable."
Giving details of the qualifications required,
Mr. Fadden said that applicants must be registered nurses
between the ages of 21 and 45 years, single or widows without
children.
Any suitably qualified nurses who wished to apply
for the service in view of its possible extension, he said,
should apply for application forms from the Matron-in-Chief
at Air Force Head-Quarters, Century Building, Melbourne.
Suitable candidates would be placed on a reserve which could
be drawn upon as vacancies arose.
Authorised by 
for D.P.R. LB Le
(C297/40)
 

DEPARTMENT OF AIR
PRESS
Melbourne,
14.9.40.
Directorate of
Public Relations
Bulletin No. 62.
NURSES APPOINTED TO AIR FORCE HOSPITALS
Appointment of R.A.A.F. nurses since inauguration of the
service under Miss M. I. Lang, Matron-in-chief, were announced
today by the Department of Air.
Miss Muriel Knox Doherty, sister clerk in the principal
matron's office of the Eastern Army Command (N.S.W.) since
October, 1939, has been appointed Matron of No.3 R.A.A.F.
Hospital at Richmond, N.S.W., and begins duty on Monday 16.9.40
Matron Doherty trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital,
Sydney, and later became sister in the surgical and medical
wards. She also served as senior night sister at that hospital,
and was a laboratory sister there before going to England and
Europe for further nursing experience.
She qualified as a tutor sister at King's College, University
of London, and upon her return to Australia was successively
tutor sister at Sydney's The Royal Prince Alfred ^Hosp Sydney and at Prince
Henry's
Other appointments to the service are:-
Head-Quarters (Melbourne) - Sister Mary Gay Greening. 19/8/40
No.1 Hospital (Laverton) - Senior Sister Dorothy Evelyn
[*26/5/40*] Joiner; Sisters Alice Isabel Fiedler and Phyllis Anguey;
Staff Nurses Marie Patricia Dykes, Joan Kathleen Gore,
Joan Ingrid Maria O'Donnell and Doris Lilian Edith Coleman.
No.2 Hospital (Ascot Vale Showgrounds) - Senior Sister Sara
Margaret Gray; Staff Nurses Freda Pauline Zeunert, Elvie
Phyllis Hodge, Matilda Ritchie McDowell, Kathleen Agnes
Budd, Alice Mary Budd, Annie McMillan Hannah, Joan Kelly
and Edith Mary Earl.
Authorised by LND
for D.P.R.
[*NSW 17/12/40 Miss Thirsly.
WA 14/41
S.A.*]
(0. 380/40)
 

DEPARTMENT OF AIR
PRESS.
Canberra,
. 12.40.
Directorate of
Public Relations
Bulletin No.265.
NURSES KEEN FOR R.A.A.F. SERVICE.
About 40 nurses were already on duty in various R.A.A.F. hospitals
and station sick quarters, the Minister for Air (Mr. McEwen) stated
today. Others had been selected for the nursing service and would be
appointed upon completion of hospital accommodation and living quarters
at different R.A.A.F. stations.
"By May there will be about 120 nursing sisters in the service",
Mr. McEwen stated. "With hundreds of applicants to choose from, many
of them specialists in various branches of their work, a highly efficient
nursing service is being established.
"Last week Miss M. I. Lang, Matron-in-Chief, completed visits to
all State capitals. In Sydney she interviewed about 60 of the 500 New
South Wales applicants, the R.A.A.F. matron for that State having
previously interviewed many of the others.
"Most of the qualified nurses in Queensland, South Australia,
Western Australia and Tasmania who had completed application forms were
interviewed on the interstate trip. Miss Lang saw about 30 in Brisbane,
40 in Adelaide, 45 in Hobart and 70 in Perth.
"Of about 300 Victorian applicants, nearly 200 have been interviewed
since July when plans for the nursing service were first announced".
On present estimates, Mr. McEwen said it was expected that about
50 nurses would be stationed at R.A.A.F. hospitals and station sick
quarters in Victoria, about 40 in New South Wales and the Capital
Territory, and another 30 in Queensland and Western Australia.
Existing sick quarters and hospital facilities in South Australia
and Tasmania obviated the necessity at present for appointing nurses to
those States, but nurses from both were being selected for the Service.
Authorised by RBL.
D. P.R.
 

DEPARTMENT OF AIR
Press
Melbourne,
19.12.40.

Directorate of
Public Relations
Bulletin No. 313
R.A.A.F. NURSES FLY TO DARWIN.
Two sisters of the R.A.A.F. Nursing Service had been
sent to Darwin to assist service medical personnel in the
fight against any spread of meningitis, the Department of Air
announced today.
The nurses travelled from Melbourne to Adelaide by
train on Wednesday night, and left for Darwin by plane today.
Authorised by  LND
for D.P.R.