SHORTAGE OF NURSES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 336, 18 January 1937, Page 5

SHORTAGE OF NURSES.

One of the Results of the Depression.

Press Association—Copyright. Wellington, To-day.

“There is a shortage of nurses, but it is only temporary," said Miss M. Lamhie, Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives’ Registration Board, when asked to comment in Wellington on a report that the Eannevirke Hospital Board had received no reply to an advertisement for a trained staff nurse. The report stated that the salary offered was £B5 a year, which was increased to £lO4 a year after discussion by the board of the matron’s report that there was a shortage. Two reasons were given by Miss Lambie. In the depression years, especially in 1931 and '1932, the larger hospital boards took in only a smali number of nurses for training. The Wellington board, for example, which usually trained 120 new nurses each year, took in none at all in 1931. As

the period ot training was three years and three months, and most of the trainees stayed on to the end ot the fourth year, a shortage was now beginning to be felt. The position was similar to that obtaining in the teaching profession. In both the June and December examinations of 1936 there was a much smaller number of candidates than usual, said Miss Lambie, the decrease being about 100. In December there were 180 candidates, compared with the usual 220 to 240.

The shortage would be relieved,' however, by the qualified nurses now available, and for the examination next June the normal number of candidates was expected.