MATERNITY NURSING

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 95, 15 January 1921, Page 7

MATERNITY NURSING

PUPILS’ FEES GREATLY REDUCED MORE MIDWIVES NEEDED During the Parliamentary session of 1920 there was a good deal of discussion of the i£2o. I %ee required of women who entered St. Helens hospitals for .training in maternity nursing. Several members expressed the opinion that women oi moderate means could not pay such a fee and keep themselves while training for twelve mouths in the institutions. As the result of the representations mitae to him, the Minister of Public Kea.-a (the Hon. C. J. Parr) undertook to make some reduction’ in the amount oi the fee. Yesterday Mr. Parr told a Dominion reporter it had been definitely decided that henceforth the fee for maternity nursing pupils trained in the St.'Helens homes should be merely nominal. He regretted that he had been unable to abolish the fee, because the Midwives’ Registration Act required that some fee should be paid for training. In futurcv; however, the fee would be only 10s, for registered nurses undergoing a six months’ course, and 20s. for women who came into' the homes without previous nursing experience, and had to undergo a twelve months’ course. , , -Asked what ho intended to do in regard to the fees paid .by women at present in' training, Mr. Parr replied that all but the amount of. tho new fees would be refunded to the trainees. “New Zealand leads in this matter, Mr. Pfirr remarked. “No other country, io far as I am aware, has abolished the training fees. The Australian fee is even .heavier than ours has been, while n Great Britain the fees amount to A4O and <£so a year. The desire of the Department is to obtain an increased number of midwives. Wo need them particularly in the back-blocks. In the whole Dominion there are at present about 1100 midwives, and we could easily do with' 200 or 300 more.”