COMFORT AND BEAUTY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 197, 18 May 1944, Page 6

COMFORT AND BEAUTY

Well-Planned Nurses’ Home At Hutt Hospital

Accommodation comparable to a hrscclass hotel •is provided in the newlycompleted nurses’ home at the Hutt Hospital. Steam heating throughout, colourful and finely appointed lounges, a glassedin sunroom, individual bedrooms in pink, blue and apple green, the latets laundry and bathroom facilities and a telephone call svstem for every room, are some or the many facilities that make the building one of the most up-to-date of its kind in New Zealand. - All the rooms get the sun some time during the day and instead of looking out on to roofs and chimneys, as. do so many windows of institutions of this kind in citv areas, there is an expansive view of rolling hills. The fresh air has already sharpened appetites, one nurse said. The lounges are divided by noor-to-ceiliug polished doors, that can be folded back, when necessary, to make one enormous room. The ceilings are Pale green and the walls a creamy tint, and though the colour effect m each is different,, the main items of the three rooms are similar, to allow for uniformity when used as one room. Carpets are fawn and the deep couches and chairs.a pleasing green. Ihe staff nurses have petunia and beige taffeta cushions in their lounge, and the other two. for junior and senior nurses use. have orange, lemou, fawn ami green colour accents, bowls of lovely flowers echoing the colours in each case. The matron, assistant-matron and sister-in-cbarge have a suite of rooms between them and the sisters’ sitting-room is carried out m green and tropic tan. Voluntary aids, working at the hospital under the Civil Nursing Reserve p an, have their own prettily-appointed sittingroom and their bedrooms are the same as those of the nurses. Meeting Modern Needs. Any modern girl would approve of the bedroom arrangements. Cottage sieaie for bedspreads ami curtains and a bedside rug carry out the .pink, b tie or green scheme. Early rising would no doubt lose some of its sting, for all the rooms are warmed with the steam heating: there is a washbasin with hot and cold water, glass shelf, bracket for book and the bedside lamp, a tallboy, chair and wall mirror and ample wardrobe space, where a full-length mirror, space for suitcases and shoes, as well as half-a-dozen drawers for “overflow belongings are additional to the usual space. Whenever a nurse is wanted on the telephone. a slot falls open in the wall. If she is in her room she pushes the slot shut to indicate to the operator that she will take the call. Telephone booths in the corridors light up automatically as the person enters and turn off as the occupant steps out. The bathrooms are carried out in saining primrose tiles. There are six bathrooms, six washbasins and a shower-room for each wing. In the laundry are two electric coppers and sets of white tubs, where the staff can do personal washing. Irons are provided with asbestos boxes for safety and the ironing-room has. lockers, where the nurses can leave taeir belongings to air. There is plenty of s nace for sunbathing and this has already proved a popular feature. ' Coming to the study portion of the building, there is a reference library, with polished fittings, a practice-room where beds and sterilizers and trolleys will provide practice for trainees, ana two large lecture-rooms. This last is a new feature, and the nurses at the Hutt Hospital will take their lectures here and not, as 1S usual, over in the main hospital building. In the well-equipped kitchen, with its gas burners, refrigerator, electric stove and shining steel sinks, dietetics and food preparation will be taught. It is not to be wondered at. that the nurses have confessed to being very happy in their new home.