UNTRAINED NURSES.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2376, 4 February 1915, Page 3

UNTRAINED NURSES.

THE HARM THEY DO. ♦" Extraordinary interest has teen cretifccd by the publicity given to tho strong resolution sent by tho National Council <:f Trained Nurses to the War Office (writes the London correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald"). Tho council placed on record its "unqualified disapproval of the present organisation of the nursing of the sick and wounded soldiers in military auxiliary hospitals at home and abroad, and most earnestly petitioned tho Secretary for War to prevent the expenditure of the munificent subscriptions of the public on inefficient nursing and the subjection of the sick 'and wounded to the dangerous interference of untrained and unskilled women." We have known for some time past that protests have been niado in various quarters against wounded British 6oldieis being left to the tender mercies of women, who, while no doubt brave, well-meaning, and self-eacrificing,' lack the qualifications of trained nurses. One of the chief complaints of the profession is that womdu with social influence have been placed in positions of responsibility in hospitals dealing with wounded men, while matrons, with long experience have' been ignored. The eagerness of young women of leisure to share in the work of war nursing hae been almost embarrassing. It has become a joke among the nursing profession —this keenness to step into a province of usefulness in a sphere in which ignorance is so dangerous. One well-known matron has asserted that if Lord Kitchener had'asked for 500,000 women to enlist as nurses instead of 500,000 men for the war, he would have had the number by first post next morning. With his characteristic promptitude, Lord Kitchener has taken a step that will bring to a head at once this controversy in relation to untrained nurses at tho front. In the course of a conversation with Lord Kuutsford, at the Australian Voluntary Hospital at Wim erciix, on the occasion of his visit, ] gathered that much cf the trouble with ibeso society nurses arose from their love of being photographed for publication in society papers—the women who are doing the real work of nursing being too occupied and engrossed in their duties to think of such a thing, also that they talked too much in public about , their patients. Lord Knutsford, while disagreeing with the resolution of the National Council of Trained Nurses, admits thai. a few untrained nurses have "got out abroad," and thinks some, though not the majority, would give less offence if they would bo a little more humble and less aggressive, if they would wear their uniforms more modestly, and if they would believe that "the whole universe does not move round them."

A Difference of Opinion. Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, the president of the National Council of Trained Is'urset>, states that the nursing in the stationary hospitals of the War Offiet and in tho hospitals under the Territorial Hoepitals Association, is done by thoroughly qualified people, but what they complain of is the nursing in the voluntary auxiliary hospitals. Lord Knutsford says'that he has tho authority of the Itea Cross Society for saying that they have not sent out untrained nurses. Well, he has written evidence ti:at they are sending out parties composed half of fully-trained nurses and half otherwise. If these women of good social position are not interfering in the hospital work at all, their presence is superfluous. Mrs.. Bedford Fenwick holds that every man who is ready k> offer his life for the Empire is entitled when wounded or sick to receive efficient and skilled treatment, and that it is the duty of the War Office to see that lie has it.

The editress of the, "Nursing Times" hajj much , of interest; also to say on this matter. She' itates that untrained Englishwomen were not" only ■ working in the British hospitals, bufc also in the French and Belgian, to the doubtful advantage of the wounded. She does not believn that the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John have eent out ajiy untrained nursee, but it is a pity • that the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Departments are not more under the control of the society. A considerable number of women with first aid ■ certificates have hurried abroad, and attached themselves to hospitals, the authorities of which do not understand what trained nursing means. But how can they be blamed when some of our own medical men have taken untrained relatives and friends as nurses ?■ There is undoubtedly a need for more trained nurses, yet there are more than 1000 on the waiting list of the Red Cross Society! Trained women are anxious to volunteer, but they 6eem to be crowded out by the amateurs.