MENTAL HOSPITAL NURSES

Southland Times, Issue 24877, 17 October 1942, Page 4

MENTAL HOSPITAL NURSES

Employment Conditions Criticized Allegations that the conditions under which nursing aids worked and lived at the Seacliff mental hospital were anything but enticing were made by _ a young woman, a former nursing aid, whose appeal against the direction of the man-power officer that she return to her former employment at Seacliff, was heard by the Industrial Manpower Committee in Invercargill yesterday. She was Audrey Catherine Francis, aged 20, of Invercargill. She appealed on the grounds that the work was injurious to her health and she produced a doctor’s certificate in support of her claim. Questioned about the working conditions at the hospital, the appellant replied that they were poor. She had been on night duty for several months at a time and the strain had affected her nervous system. “I think that is too long a period for any girl to be kept on night duty,” she said. “Some girls had been kept on night duty for five and six months at a time, and others who had been at the hospital for several years had not done night duty.” Mr M. W. Grantham (the chairman): Is there anything else you could tell us? We want to find out these matters —the conditions of work at these places. What about the meals? The appellant: They were absolutely terrible. Saturday’s dinner was cold and scrappy, and you would see perhaps one nurse sitting down to the meal.

Anything else?—Yes, we had steamed puddings about every second day. What about the wages? Are they not better than what you are getting in your present employment?—They say the wages are all right, but I doubt it. Do you not want to go back to the work?—Definitely no. Are you prepared to take up nursing in another hospital?—No, I have finished with nursing. The district man-power officer (Mr S. C. Bingham) said the shortage of nursing aids and mental hospital nurses was exceedingly acute. The appellant added that she had applied for enrolment in the W.A.A.F. She was keen to get into the Air Force or any of the other services. The committee reserved its decision and ordered the appellant to remain in her employment as a shop assistant in the meantime. The appeal of Mrs Janet Mary Lowe against a direction to take employment as a cook at Mataura was disallowed.