DISABILITIES OF HOSPITAL NURSES.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1919, Page 4

DISABILITIES OF HOSPITAL NURSES.

The members of the Industries Committee who waited on the Minister of Publie Health (Hon G. W. Russell) on 'Thursday, relative to the pay, hours of work and general conditions applying to nurses in the public hospitals of the Dominion, are to be congratulated on taking a step that, it is to be hoped, will result in the amelioration of the arduous lot of those whose mission it is to attend tc the patients in our public hospitals. A reform in this direction is long overdue, for if there is one class of women who have a special claim for liberal treatment it is our hospital hurses, and yet they have had to put up With poor pay, much overwork, frequently unsatisfactory housing, and no provision for superannuation. The deputation plainly but clearly brought before the Minister the principal disabilities uncle: which the nurses suffer, especially in consequence of understaffing due to resignations consequent on the lack of any prospect of advancement by continuing in h«»ital service. The right kind of (nines, Ifho possess, not only patience 'and skill, but cheerful and helpful temfieratlienta, are worthy of every consideration and inducement to remain at the hospitals, for each year adds experience is a great boon to the patients. The Minister expressed Ms sympathy with some of the views of the deputation, and he placed a finger on a very knotty problem when replying to the request that probationers should be paid at least twenty shillings a week. That question, however, is one that might be settled oil the deferred pay basis as an inducement for probationers, after learning their business and obtaining their certificates, to continue service in the public hospitals instead of becoming private nurses at high pay, or transferring their services to private hospitals. It is satisfactory to note that the Minister is prepared to recommend superannuation for women who spend their lives in hospital work. That is a step which will certainly be much appreciated if put into force. We venture to think Mr Russell might have been more definite in his reply to the question of raising the salaries of the nurses. He merely stated that if Parliament granted an addition to the hospital board subsidy a condition could be attached diverting an extra five shillings to the nurses of the start'. Enlightened public opinion has long since been in favor of higher pay and better conditions of service for the nurses in our public hospitals, and there is no question that the | request of the deputation for increased i pay and ho.iday leave is thoroughly : justified. The argument that applies in the case of school teachers lias equal force in the case of public hospital nurses. If we are to have the best, then the inducements offered must be on a Borresponding scale. It waa stated at the recent Stratford conference of hospital board delegates that the nur#e»

themselves had not claimed better conditions, but when injustices exist in the public service they should be remedied before a crisis arises instead of afterwards. Parliament should be given a lead in this matter by the Minister, and there appears to be good grounds for hoping that the members of the deputation will not allow the Minister either to forget his promises or to whittle them down. Hie hospital boards, of course, have it in their power to improve the salaries and conditions without Government assistance, but so far they liave shown no disposition to translate into action their professions of sympathy with the nurses in their unnecessarily hard lot. I