---
title: Doctors are scarce
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/doctors-are-scarce-1943/
description: 'Home-front first-aid poster in red, white and black: ''Doctors are scarce'' with the statistic ''One out of three has gone to war''.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Doctors are scarce

[![Doctors are scarce, 1943 US poster: Home-front first-aid poster in red, white and black](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/doctors-are-scarce-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/doctors-are-scarce-1943.jpg)

# Doctors are scarce

Home-front first-aid poster in red, white and black: 'Doctors are scarce' with the statistic 'One out of three has gone to war', then 'Be prepared for minor injury, for minor illness' and 'Learn first aid & home nursing'. A Civil Defense emblem and a Red Cross emblem sit at the foot. The single figure is given without a source and the poster presents shortage as the reason to act.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Doctors are Scarce
One out of three has gone to war
Be Prepared
for minor injury
for minor illness
LEARN First Aid
& Home Nursing
[emblem:] CD (Civil Defense)
[emblem:] Red Cross
OWI Poster No. 27. Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D. C.
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—503156
```

[← Do with less - so they'll have enough!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/do-with-less-so-theyll-have-enough-1943/) [Doggone it, fellows! These guys know there's a war on! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/doggone-it-fellows-food-is-ammunition-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.