On March 3, 1919, the Public Health Service had available 1500 beds in 23 hospitals, and practically no nurses. Chief nurses were unknown in any of the hospitals. There was no machinery for the recruiting of nurses. In regular Service hospitals, there were no quarters for nurses, and the Service is still concerned over a solution of these difficulties. At the present time, there are 1796 nurses in the hospitals operated by the Public Health Service. As has already been said, the problem of giving the most efficient care to the disabled ex-service men in the hospitals of the Public Health Service is a little different from that of the Army, due to the fundamental differences in the organization of this corps of nurses. The Nurse Corps of the Public Health Service is a civilian organization, pure and simple, though 99%, probably, of the nurses now serving in the Public Health Service are ex-service nurses and familiar with the problems of the care of ex-service men. The aim of the Nursing Department of the Public Health Service is to give as efficient nursing care to the patients in these hospitals as can be given, to see that the nurses cooperate in every possible way with those responsible for the care of the patients—that is, the Medical Officers in Charge,—to recruit a sufficient number of qualified nurses to meet the needs of the Service, and to recommend the establishment of such policies in the Nursing Department as will increase the efficiency of the nursing corps. The co-operation of the Medical Officer in Charge is essential; his sympathy with and support of the Chief Nurse must be unquestioned, if the nursing service is to reach the greatest efficiency. The place of the nurse in the administrative unit of the hospital should be clearly and definitely defined, understood and observed. One great difficulty confronting this department is the lack of nurses specially trained in the care of neuro-psychiatric and tuberculosis patients, who constitute a large proportion of our patients. To partly meet this need, a school for nurses conducted at Oteen in September 1921, was organized and, while this school was most successful, it barely touched the fringe of our necessities. The Service is considering a similar course in neuro-psychiatric nursing as soon as there is established a station where all conditions, quarters, lecturers and teaching facilities can be guaranteed to produce the desired result. One piece of nursing work which has been far-reaching in its effects, was the establishment of a Public Health Nursing Unit in the office of the Supervisor of District #4, for the purpose of making contact with the claimant of the then Bureau of War Risk Insurance, with a view to giving the claimant, who for any reason was not hospitalized, the benefit of health supervision and health instruction. The success of the work of this unit more than justified its establishment by the U. S. Public Health Service.