Review cautioned not to blame nurses’ training

Press, 5 February 1986, Page 20

Review cautioned not to blame nurses’ training

PA Wellington A Health Department review of nurses’ employment should be wary of making nurse education the scapegoat for nursing shortages, says the Nurses’ Society national director, Mr David Wills. The review, announced by its chairman, Mrs Vivienne Boyd, will study the link between nursing education and employment, including the progress so far of the changed system of nursing education. Mrs Boyd said it has been 10 years since the move to a qualified nursing workforce started by transferring nursing education from hospital boards’ three-year programmes to the tertiary

education system. “As this transfer is nearly completed and there has been wide public interest in nursing education and employment, it is timely to look at emerging issues and how to deal with them,” she said. Mr Wills yesterday welcomed the review but said it might merely duplicate at least 10 reports and reviews done over the last 15 years. The society did not want to see nursing education made a scapegoat for nursing shortages, he said. The cause of those shortages lay elsewhere. The review’s planning and organising committee met for the first time last week.