An Act to Provide for the Establishment of Classes for the Instruction and Training of Male and Female Nurses under the Supervision of the Director of Health

April 18, 1910

ACT NO. 1975

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CLASSES FOR THE INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING OF MALE AND FEMALE NURSES UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH

SECTION 1. The Director of Health is hereby authorized, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to establish classes of male and female Filipino students to receive instruction and training in nursing and hospital duties, said instruction and training to be given in the hospitals and sanitariums of the Bureau of Health and such other appropriate places as the Director of Health may designate and the Secretary of the Interior approve.

In order to be admitted to any of the classes provided for in this section, it shall be a requisite condition:

(a) To have completed the intermediate course in the public schools of the Philippine Islands and received a certificate therefrom; or

(b) To be able to give evidence by examination or in any other manner satisfactory to the Director of Health that the applicant for admission has received preliminary training of equal or greater extent.

SECTION 2. The Director of Health, so far as consistent with the interest of the public service, shall select from amongst those persons jointly recommended by district health officers and division superintendents of schools, or in default thereof by provincial boards, students for the aforesaid classes from provinces organized under "The Provincial Government Act" and from the Provinces of Palawan, Mindoro, and Batanes, and the number of students selected shall not exceed thirty ach year of each sex, nor one hundred in all of each sex: Provided, That in the submission of said students, the highest average obtained in the examinations referred to in subsections (a) and (b) of the next preceding section, shall be taken into account.

The Director of Health may admit private students under such conditions as may be approved by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, however, That they shall receive no compensation or allowances other than subsistence, quarters, and laundry. Students who were appointed to the course in nursing under the provisions of Acts Numbered Eighteen hundred and seventy-three of Nineteen hundred and thirty-one or those who have been admitted to an analogous training class in the Bureau of Health are hereby declared to have been duly appointed under this Act: And Provided, further, That the Director of Education may, up to July first, nineteen hundred and ten, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction, issue the usual certificates or diplomas to those students whose experience, conduct, and services entitling them to the same, shall have pursued their studies or rendered services prior to July first, nineteen hundred and ten, for two complete terms or years or more, and a certificate or diploma so issued shall have the same value as if it had been issued by the Director of Health under the provisions of section three of this Act.

SECTION 3. The course of study, period of probation, vacations, length of time required for graduation, granting of diplomas or certificates upon satisfactory completion of the course of training, rules of discipline, proportion of male and female students, rates for commutation for subsistence, quarters, and laundry, blank forms and preliminaries to admission except as hereinbefore provided shall be prescribed by the Director of Health subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, However, That rules shall so far as possible be uniform for all students: And Provided Further, That no student shall be admitted who is suffering from any mental or physical defect or peculiarity that in the opinion of the Director of Health would disqualify him for the duties of hospital nurse or attendant, or whose moral conduct and antecedents are undesirable.

SECTION 4. Students admitted under the terms of this Act shall receive quarters and laundry and adequate subsistence or commutation therefore at rates fixed as hereinbefore provided, in addition to an annual compensation of two hundred and eighty-eight pesos each as may be authorized by law: Provided, However, That the Director of Health may withhold such portion of their compensation, not to exceed one-sixth thereof, and deposit the same in the Postal Savings Bank to the credit of the student from whose allowance the deduction is made, for the purpose of purchasing such books and student equipment as may be necessary for him. Any unexpended balance shall be paid to the student upon graduation.

SECTION 5. Any unexpended balance of the sum of twenty thousand pesos appropriated in Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and thirty-one is hereby transferred to the Bureau of Health, to be expended by the Director of Health for the establishment and operation of the classes herein authorized, and for such other purposes pertaining thereto as he may consider necessary. All equipment heretofore purchased in accordance with the provisions of Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and thirty-one shall be transferred to the Bureau of Health. The Director of Health is further authorized to expend such sums as may be available from the contingent fund of the Bureau of Health to carry out the purposes of this Act, including the transportation and necessary traveling expenses of those who may be designated for appointment.

SECTION 6. Graduates of the classes provided for in this Act shall be eligible for appointment in the classified civil service without examination to positions as Government nurses.

SECTION 7. Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and thirty-one and all other Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 8. This Act shall take effect immediately on its passage, in accordance with the provisions of section one of Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and forty-five of the Philippine Legislature, entitled "An Act providing the time at which all Acts of the Philippine Legislature shall take effect."

ENACTED, April 18, 1910.