TRAINING OF NURSES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 1 September 1928, Page 5

TRAINING OF NURSES

PLUNKET SOCIETY’S WORK MINISTER SYMPATHETIC Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day, The Plunket Conference concluded to-day, when the balance, eheet was read and adopted. A remit from Timaru asking the Central Council to inquire into the position with regard to the price of oranges, particularly in the South Island, was carried. The council is also to be asked to take all possible steps to bring good, cheap fruit within the reach of mothers. In reply to a remit that representations be made to the Minister recommending that native health nurses be given Plunket training in order to teach the work to the Maori race, the Hon. J. A. Young, Minister of Health, who was present. said he would be pleased to give the remit sympathetic consideration and where it was reasonable, to have such nurses acquire the same knowledge by Plunket methods. A suggestion was made that the Minister of Health should recommend that hospital boards, when making appointments to the staff of any public maternity hospital or ward, that the preference should be given to nurses "ho had Karitane Hospital training, also every facility should be given to nurses to receive this training.

Mr. Young said it was necessary to remember the difference between a midwife and a maternity nurse, who would not be given charge of a maternity ward. She would have to be a midwife who could take a case without a doctor. He knew that very careful consideration would be given to applications, both by hospitals boards and by the department, to whom all recommendations were referred for Ministerial consent. However, the suggestion was a useful one and would ssrve to bring the matter before the Public and under the notice of the nurses themselves.