DEMAND FOR TRAINED

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2548, 24 August 1915, Page 3

DEMAND FOR TRAINED

NURSES •} IMPORTANT CONFERENCE PENDING . (By TelcEtaph.—Press Association.) Christchurcti, August 23. Invitations are now being issued by tho Director of Military Hospitals for a conference to be held in the rooms of the Minister of Public Health this week, • "to discuss'the best means of meeting the demand for trained nurses for service at. the front or to (ill vacancies in the Various hospitals and districts occasioned by their absence from the Dominion." Representatives of St. John. Ambulance Association will be invited, and the secretary 'of the Volunteer Sisterhood ivill also be present. The following suggested basis of agreement for submission, to tlio conference has been_ signed by Mr. M. W. M'Kinney, acting assistant commissioner of St. John Ambulance Brigade of Christclrarch, and the secretary of the Volunteer Sisterhood:— (1) That each district St. John Ambulance Brigade provides the personnel for a voluntary aid detachment of women for service in New Zealand or abroad as required, selecting • the • most suitable women from each district. (2) ■ That the Volunteer Sisterhood amalgamate with tho V.A.D., the brigade secretary of the Sisterhood acting as New Zealand recruiting officer for the V.A.D. women. ' (3) That a central Red Cross Hospital be established in New Zealand under military control. ; (4) That a special-V.A.D. Finance Committee be set up in each district to deal with the financial requirements of. tho organisation, and that the funds of the Volunteer Sisterhood' be devoted through the Finance Committees to the general purposes, of providing services for_tihe sick find wounded. (5) That the Government, be asked to provido training for V.A.D. women for a stated period in New Zealand, such trained women to be then sent abroad as required, and that the V.A.D. organisation be available for convalescents in convalescent hospitals and elsewhere. (6) That it be distinctly understood that the. services to be rendered by V.A.D. women shall be any work of any nature or kind required in military hospitals, and, shall ijiclude cooking, laundry work, , and general household and ward work. (7) That V.A.D. women are to be regarded as probationers for one month, and after that, if found suitable, shall be employed' with the rank of female .hospital orderlies for as long as required, and that V.A.D.' women shall be over thirty years of age and medically certified as physically fit for work in military hospitals. It has also been agreed by the secretary of the Volunteer Sisterhood that, provided this or a similar suitable agreement can be arrived at, the women already placed in the military hospitals at Trentham and Oriental Bay shall be regarded as the first contingent of V.A.D. women. Many of, these women are St. John Ambulance 1 women, and othors have special qualifications which have led to their selection for military hospital work.