Nurses’ Aides Corps | U.S. Citizens Defense Corps

Identifying device

Red cross inside a white triangle with a blue circle around it.

Red cross. Letters Patent: D-129798.

Duties

The primary role of volunteer nurses’ aides was to assist trained nurses so they could treat a greater number of patients.

Following the successful completion of training by the American National Red Cross, volunteers could be assigned to work in hospital wards and out-patient clinics, public health, school services or assigned to assist with an Emergency Medical Field Unit (part of the Medical Corps).

All trained nurses’ aides could wear the red cross emblem on their uniform. If attached to a Medical Field Unit, they could wear the caduceus emblem.

A vintage recruitment poster encouraging women to train as nurses' aides, featuring a line of women in blue uniforms and a central nurse's cap with a red cross.

Open to

Positions were available to trained women only.

Nurses’ Aides Photos

Period photographs of Civilian Defense nurses’ aides

A nurses' aide leaning over a patient in a hospital bed, smiling, in a vintage black-and-white photo.