IN DEFENCE OF THE NURSES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 9

IN DEFENCE OF THE NURSES.

Sir,—The chagrin of the Government on their defeat at the polls must pale in comparison with the effect of the bombshell exploded amongst those noble ladies who follow the self-sacrificing profession of nursing at the Wellington Hospital when the reports of the medical superintendent and the matron were published in your issue of yesterday. The insinuations that the nurses are hysterical, irritable, lacking in kindness, and that they spend too much timo running, about town will come as a great surprise to the many hundreds of patients who can only speak: in the highest terms of praise ol the patience, gentleness, kindness, tact, and abilitv displayed by those worthy women. Mustthov be"cut off from all social intercourse? How many would stand the strain if they wore denied outside pleasure, for they are surely not machines? Is tho idea to lengthen the hours of duty so that the nurses will be too tired to go out at all, which even now is often the case? In one passage of his report, Dr. Hard-wick-Smith says: "I believe that the nursing staff conscientiously carry out their duties to their patients, niul that they do not fail in their duty." It is a pity that this statement is qualified in tho later stages of his report by grave reflections upon the whole of the nursing staff—l am, etc., . FAIR I'LAY 1 . Wellington, January 25, 1912.