MATERNITY NURSES.

Shannon News, 30 September 1927, Page 2

MATERNITY NURSES.

STANDARD OF QUALIFICATION MUST NOT BE LOWERED.

The question of what the Government is doing to help nurses to train for maternity work was mentioned at the Maternity Home function on Monday at Palmerston North.

ALT. Win. Wallace,- of Auckland, chairman of the Hospital Boards’ Association stated that the Nurses’ Registration Board could not agree that nurses in certain of the smaller hospitals should receive full midwifery qualifications hut there was really only one qualification and that was th» highest. The nurses, he said, were demanding that something should be done.

The Minister (Hon. J. A. Young) in reply, stated that as regards maternity vraining there were two qualifications. There were maternity nurses proper and secondly, those trained in mid-wif-eiy. The latter were women experienced in matters of maternity but not permitted to take cases of their own unless under the supervision of a doctor.

New Zealand, said the Minister, was proud of the standard of qualification held by its nurses—a standard accepted throughout the United Kingdom. If we alter the standard we endanger the qualifications of every nurse in this country,” the Minister concluded.