PUBLIC OFTEN MISLED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 20, 19 October 1943, Page 6

PUBLIC OFTEN MISLED

Question Of Free Lance Untrained Nurses ' It has been pointed out that by the establishment of training for nursing aids and subsequent registration, New Zealand has progressed m, the solution of the problem of partiallytrained nurses for simple -care ot the chronic sick. There is, however, still the question of dealing with free lance untrained nurses, of whom there were (w when the last census.was taken, and o, the commercial agencies for obtaining nursing help. Those concerned feel.it is time that a more, complete security for the nursing profession and for nursing standards in the Dominion was planned. There is no provision in existing legislation, either in England or New Zealand, to prevent a person calling herselt a nurse and practising nursing as a means of livelihood, though she may not represent herself to be a registered nurse. Because of this the public is often misled. To the uninitiated a nurse is a nurse and registration, if known of at all. is only vaguely understood. Bv the passing of the Nurses Act, 1J4.5, in the English House of Commons, conirol was established of the untrained .or partly-trained nurse and provision made for the training and control ot a second grade of nurse known as an assistant nurse, a counterpart of the nursing, aid in New Zealand. The Act also provides that anyone who conducts a nurses agency shall supply only State registered nurses, State enrolled assistant u ’’ rst ' 9 : certified midwives, or other classes of nurses which may be prescribed.