"FROZEN OUT."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 895, 15 August 1910, Page 7

"FROZEN OUT."

TWO NURSES. AND THE NURSES' ASSOCIATION. INTERESTING LETTERS. ■ The. following story was told to a representative of Tnß Dominion by two trained hospital nurses who came out from England to make a homo for themselves in New Zealand, and, they, say, were given the cold shoulder by tho Wellington branch of the Trained Nurses' Association. ", (•''.- They are sisters, one with ten years' experience in leading English hospitals, and the other .with threo years' training. Upon their arrival in tho Dominion in December last they were duly registered under the New Zealand Government, ajid wero then advised that the best course open to them was to be enrolled" in tho membership.of the Trained Nurses'. Association, since under -its auspices they would become known to the medical men here, who usually communicate 'with the association When they require the sen-ices of a trained nurse. Accordingly they applied for membership, paid the fee (on January 4), and were placed on the list of nurses awaiting' engagement. According to the system winch was stated to be in vogue, a rota is kept at the Nurses' Home, and each nurse on the list, it was explained, takes her turn. It wa§ also explained that nurses had the option of staying at the homo or living privately, the stipulation in the latter case being that they 'should be on, the telephone. , The. two sisters, having more personal belongings , than they could conveniently take into the home, elected to ■ stay elsewhere, and were duly connected by . telephone. Working under this arrangement, the two subsequenty received between them, four .cases. • ; ■■- 'Days of Waiting. "Then came a blank. After waiting for a while, one of them was told that she was next for a ca6e. But still nothing-happened. Nurses "next for a case" may bo summoned at any moment, and so the two dared not leave their abode in case of a call, and at last,.unable to endure the strain'of waiting any longer—eight" weeks . had elapsed since the last case—one of them rang up the Nurses' Home, and was informed by the matron, in reply to her inquiry, that there were no cases just then. The other sister, happening to ring up shortly after, was told by the nurse who answered the telephone that there were only. three nurses in , the home at that time, and that one had just gone out to a case. v . (■ ' . .';: , The Reason Why. ■ Under the circumstances, the sisters felt that some complaint was justified. So complain they did, and the-following reply (dated April 6, 1910) was sent to them. in answer:— ■. • "1 have: been instructed by the council to inform you that your names canhot.be placed on the bureau list-at present,, nor can you bo enrolled as a member of the association. The council regrets that at the.time of applying the acting-matron of-the homo did not explain_ matters to you. •■ Our rules for some time past, have been under revision, as there is not. sufficient work to-keep'more than a certain number of nurses employed, arid we-have been forced to limit the number of members. The fees paid in by you will be returned in,a few days. ■ ■ . ~\

: '..'■■ (Sgd.) "E; DUNLOP, "Hon. Secretary W.T.N.A." Perplexity and 'Annoyance!'""'"'"" •To this the'sisters replied the' following day:— "" '•'■' .-.-.. ' "You letter of the' 6th ';inst. ''to' hand, the- contents of "which we are very' surprised' at; as' we were both enrolled as memb'efs'of the' New Zealand Trained Nurses' Association, Wellington branch, on January 4. As you hold a committee "meeting every month, I cannot-possibly understand • the delay in rectifying what you' term the actingmatron's mistake; This delay has caused us'great expense and inconvenience.. Will you kindly place'this matter before the next committee meeting,' as wo are not-prepared to'let matters rest at this ; '~ - ' ". ' ■ (Sgd) ~ „ More Letters. 12 the secretary' of. the council replied stating that no' nurse fiould ho enrolled as a .mombei until she had received from the secretary notice of her acceptance by the council, which had further decided that no names could be added to the bureau list at present. It was regretted that the acting-matron made the mistake of accepting the' fees, which' were returned (enclosed). The,matter would bo dealt with by the council at its next meeting. .-'■.'"' Following upon consideration of tho matter by tho council, a further communication was received from the secretary, expressing regret that inconvenience had been.caused, but stating that tho council ,could do nothing further at present. Et Apres?~Tho Deluga. Thus, cast upon their own resources, the sisters gathered their small capital together .and faced tho situation.- 'Inej decided to try a'tea room business in the meantime, and sunk the bulk of their capital in furnishings and equipment, taking a six mouths' lease of promises. Tho business is a struggling one, and the remainder of .the capital is slowly hut surely evaporating Et apres?—tho deluge! ' "' ■ Further Investigation. Having heard tho foregoing story, tho reporter then ■interviewed Miss E. Dunlop, secretary of the Nurses' Association, and asked for a statement of the case for the association. Miss Dunlop was not prepared to speak on bohalf of the council, but consented to give' a statement as to what had actually occurred. The trouble, she sairl, had originated with the mistake that had boeti mado by the acting-matron in accepting tho membership fee from the nurses referred to bofore the regular formalities had been completed. According to tho rules of tho association, all applications for membership had to bo formally considered by the council of the association and approved, as tho nurses in question could easily have ascertained. This had not been done in the present instance. It was true, as had been stated, that the two nurses had been given cases. These cases, however, were what wore known as "privilege" cases. Such employment did not commit the association to anything fur■ther. The rules of the association had lately been under revision, for it was felt that in view of tho fact that the supply of nurses was becoming more than sufficient to meot tho demand, those at present on the roll of the association —which was pmclj a private body—should be in a measure given some protection in tho matter of employment. It was proposed to have, in addition to tho association's rota of engagement, an "outside" list, and thoso on that list would be eligiblo to receive cases when opportunity offered.

"Is not this arrangoment something in the nature of a close corporation?" asked the interviewer.

Miss Dunlop did not think so. Thore was nothing,' she said, to prevent nurses who were not members of the association from communicating direct with tho doctors in tho matter of engagements. As a matter of fact, some did. The doctors were not bound in any way to got. their nurses through the association, and even when they did thev

were free to ask for any nurso for whom they happened, from previous experience, to have a special preference. What, then, is the special advantage of having a Nurses' Association at all? the reporter asked. ' The reply was that one of the objects of the association was to raiso and maintain tho standard of nursing efficiency. Under tho revised rules, applicants .for membership would now be accepted on probation only, for three months, during which period the council proposed to make such investigation as was considered necessary to establish their personal qualifications—temperament. Tho authority exercised by tho council was, moreover, of a disciplinary kind. Nurses who were tho subject of adverse reports were not entitled to retaiu their membership. The Last Word. Ono or two of the points raised by Miss Dunlop were subsequently referred back by the reporter to the two English nurses for reply—(a) were they acquainted with the rules of the association? (b) did they understand that the cases given them were "privilege" cases? ■ - . Tho answer was that they inferred from the .acceptance of the membership fees that their applications were in order. Secondly, they were not aware that the cases given. them were of the special class ■ referred to. As a matter of fact,-one of tho cases, a had been refused by the others. They had earned compliments from the medical men under whom they had served in Wellington—Dr. Ewart and Dr. Herbert among the number. Finally, they considered that they had been "frozen out" by tho Nurses' Association. There was, they said, no ot|her> interpretation which 'could be placed upon the treatment they had received.