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Pursuant to the provisions of Section 25(e) of the National Defense Act, as amended by Commonwealth Act No. 385, creating the Nurse Corps as a component part of the Medical Service, Philippine Army, the following rules and regulations for the organization of the Nurse Corps Reserve are hereby prescribed:

1. PROCUREMENT:

(a) The Chief of Staff of the Army shall request of the Board of Examiners for Nurses a list of qualified nurses which shall be kept up-to-date from year to year, and shall furnish said Board with questionnaires and registration forms which the Board shall require all successful female candidates who are citizens of the Philippines passing the examination for nurses to be accomplished or filled out and submitted to the Chief of Staff.

(b) Registrants shall immediately notify the Chief of Staff of any change of address subsequent to registration for proper notation in their registration papers.

(c) The Chief of Staff shall obtain from the Red Cross and local duly registered and recognized nursing associations the names and addresses of qualified nurses available for mobilization assignment in each Military District, and shall make the necessary arrangements with said associations for the enrolment and assignment of such qualified nurses to the Nurse Corps Reserve in case of mobilization.

(d) The Chief of Staff shall encourage voluntary applications for appointment in the Nurse Corps Reserve to fill up the mobilization requirement for each Military District. Should there be more applicants than may be necessary, the Secretary of National Defense may direct the Chief of Staff to hold competitive examinations to determine the relative merit of applicants. Only in case the number of voluntary applications falls short of mobilization requirements should compulsory draft be resorted to. In the latter case assignment will be made by the drawing of lots from among the names listed in the register of qualified nurses.

2. QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP:

An applicant for membership in the Nurse Corps Reserve must possess the following qualifications:

(a) She must be a citizen of the Philippines, not less than 21 nor more than 45 years of age.

(b) She must be unmarried, of good moral character and excellent reputation, and physically fit for military service.

(c) She must have graduated from a duly accredited three years’ course of training in a general hospital with a daily average of 50 patients or more, including men, women, and children, during the applicant’s training period: Provided, That graduates of special hospitals, and those of hospitals caring for women only may be eligible for appointment if their experience shall include at least nine months’ training in a general hospital for the care of men, women and children, either during their course of training or subsequent thereto; and Provided further, That subsequent post-graduate training or hospital experience which supplements deficiencies of training may be accepted as equivalent under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Chief of Staff with the approval of the Secretary of National Defense.

(d) She must have passed the examination prescribed by law for the practice of nursing in the Philippines and possess the corresponding certificate of registration issued by the Board of Examiners for Nurses.

3. APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION:

Appointments to, and promotions in, the Nurse Corps Reserve will follow the same general policy as in other branches of the Medical Service

4. CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION:

Members of the Nurse Corps Reserve shall be classified, and their rates of pay during their period of active service, shall be as follows:
Rate Per Annum

		Rate Per Annum
(a)	Nurse	P1,200.00
(b)	Head Nurse	1,500.00
(c)	Chief Nurse	1,600.00
(d)	Superintendent	2,100.00
(e)	In addition to the compensation provided in paragraphs (a) to (d), nurses will be furnished with quarters in kind whenever available, or in cash, corresponding to their relative ranks in accordance with Army Regulations governing this matter issued with the approval of the President of the Philippines.

5. MOBILIZATION:

(a) Members of the Nurse Corps Reserve may be assigned for service in general hospitals, evacuation hospitals and surgical hospitals in the proportion of three nurses for every fifty-patient capacity or major fraction thereof.

(b) Reserve Nurses must serve in time of threatened or actual hostilities and hold themselves in readiness to join for duty on the day the unit to which they are assigned begins to mobilize for active service, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Chief of Staff with the approval of the Secretary of National Defense.

Done at the City of Manila, this 15th day of April, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the fifth.


By the President:

(Sgd.) JORGE B. VARGAS
Secretary to the President