Changes In Nurses’ Role Forecast

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31118, 22 July 1966, Page 2

Changes In Nurses ’ Role Forecast

Senior nursing staff in New Zealand must look to the future and plan to be prepared as qualified nursing advisors. the matron-in-chief of the' North Canterbury Hospital Board (Miss D. Newman) told a meeting of the Canterbury branch of the National Council of Women last evening.

Miss Newman was describing her recent study course in Britain and Canada and her conclusions on the role of nursing in New Zealand. A matron should delegate to others the duties she had in the past held dear, said Miss Newman. If she did not relinquish day-to-day detail someone else would become the nursing adviser. Her authority and her status would be lessened.

A matron should prepare for a new role as "nurse planner.” She had to increase her knowledge about hospital buildings, costs, budgeting control, nursing staff establishments, research projects, future nursing services and needs, and industrial design.

The nurse administrator should not be a relic of past tradition. She had to be available for advice and not absorbed in minor details of clinical supervision. She had to be able to communicate and achieve understanding and co-operation, said Miss Newman. The role of the assistant matron would be clinical. She would be a supervisor and teacher, a clinical specialist. She would work in a large ward area and woflld ensure improved nursing care and deployment of staff. She would become a training officer, responsible for nursing care to a principal nursing officer. “We all need to be educated to accept change. The public needs to see the matron and her assistants in a different role,” said Miss Newman.

“I would foresee that we must be very selective in our recruitment of the community nurse. We must give her status and think carefully about the limit of her responsibilities. Whatever we do in the future, the status of the community nurse is important now.”

Plans should be made now. Refresher courses were necessary to enable the com-

munity nurses to develop their potential as capable, well-educated nurses in their own speciality. Community nurses should also be prepared to work all shifts. If married and with other commitments, she would have to fit these into her pattern of employment and not vice versa.

“She must become an integral part of our professional organisation,” said Miss Newman. Miss Newman said manpower planning was the first step in any hospital plan. To those involved in hospital planning (and that meant every hospital and employee), planning was the escalator of change in hospital practice and organisation. Steps to match improved material facilities with appropriate skills and organisations were vital. Without some plan of operation, adequate care would never be. given, except by ehance or accident. It could well be that the was more pertinent to nursing than the science of disease. “How many of us believe this? Do we still say we haven’t time—let’s get on with the essentials that stare us in the face? What system

;do we have for ensuring good nursing care?” asked Miss Newman.

“We talk very glibly about meeting all the patient’s science of communication needs. Are we being unrealistic? Are these words meaningless in themselves? We need more nursing personnel, better motivated and prepared. Training la not a

miracle panacea. It must be an integral part of personnel policies. Do we recognise and respect the intellectual and scientific component in nursing?” she asked. “It is clear that we must develop Inservice education at all levels. Let us not be restricted or confined to discussing the future with nursing colleagues only. Let us get together with all disciplines within and outside the hospital environment,” said Miss Newman.

If nursing administration was to achieve its objective, the selection of the right person for the right job was of great importance. Courses for potential nurse administrators should be available. Miss Newman said such courses should Include the development of social policy, the comparative study of administrative structures, hospital administration and buildings, modern developments in patient care, nursing research, selection and interviewing techniques, staff welfare and accommodation, committee procedure, public speaking and psychology, and staff management with emphasis on effective communication.