OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1939, Page 10

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

HOSPITAL NURSES WORKING CONDITIONS AND PAY CTo the Editor.) Sir,— -Many hospital boards throughout New Zealand have complained about the difficulty experienced in obtaining suitable nursing trainees to fully staff their hospitals. Our Masterton hospital has also experienced this difficulty. Quite often do we hear that “everything has been done” to entice young women to take up the nursing profession. I have spoken to several nursing trainees of the Masterton Hospital and find that there is inwardly much dissatisfaction. ’’[’here are three reasons for this dissatisfaction, which are as follows: (1) Food; (2) working hours and hours of relaxation; (3) wages. The food is not as attractively cooked as that which can be obtained at a third-rate city cafe. Why the food of this hospital, or any other, for that matter, should not be attractively cooked I do not know, for it is just as easy for a chef to cook for 25 people as it is to cook for 250 people. The working hours average 48 each week, which, by the way, is eight hours more than is necessary. However, the junior trainees’ freedom is very much curtailed owing to the fact that they are compelled to return to the hospital not later than 9 p.m. on six nights of the week and not later than 11 p.m. on one night per week. Such a restriction is. quite unreasonable when we consider that the age of the trainees varies from 20 years to 26 years. This, together with the fact that they have many lectures and studies to attend, gives the trainee the feeling that she is never off duty. The wages have always been the cause of much dissatisfaction in every hospital and I would like to take as an example the position of a first-year trainee at the Masterton Hospital. This trainee is a lady of 24 years of age. Once a month she receives a salary of £4 0s 6d, less 5s 8d wages tax. From the £3 14s lOd then left 2s 6d is deducted as union fee, leaving £3 12s 4d. This amount of £3 12s 4d represents a net income of 16s 8d per week. Out of this paltry wage, she is expected to dress well and to mix with people of an equal social standing to that which the nursing profession represents. On the present cost of living how can it be done? How many pairs of shoes can she afford at 25s to 30s a pair? Or hats at 25s each, or stockings at 6s lid a pair, or blouses at 12s Ud each. Perhaps some members of the board would like to answer these questions through your columns. The work is heavy, the studies are hard, the social standing high; yet the wages are so low that we can safely look upon the nursing profession as sweated labour. Perhaps some member of the board would like to answer the following:— Why is it that girls without education can join the domestic staff, have unlimited freedom, in many cases, shorter hours of work, no social standing to keep up, yet receive wages 2J times greater than those given to the trainees? Several first-year trainees have stated their intention of leaving and an answer to these questions will do much to help them in their decision. —I am, etc., A.S.M. Masterton, April 28. Mr Norman Lee, Secretary-Manager of the Wairarapa Hospital Board, to whom the above letter was referred, stated that it was full of inaccuracies, but if there were any matters that required adjustment he would suggest that the writer communicate with members of the board, whose names and addresses would be supplied. Mr Lee went on to state that a first-year trainee received £4 3s 4d per month, plus the value of living-in, £4 6s Bd, from which was deducted 8s 6d for wages tax, for which the board was not responsible. That left £3 14s lOd, with free uniforms and living-in. No union fees were paid, as there was no union. As to the food, the board had received no complaints from the staff. Regarding recreation, Mr Lee stated that unless they had some form of control over the staff, the same as in any boarding school, the position would be an impossible one. Members of the nursing staff had a certain amount of time off and did not work eight hours a day, but seven hours a [day. Mr Lee pointed out that girls j employed on the domestic staff remained at their present salaries, whereas nurses were being educated and after four years training were able to take their place in a profession, the remuneration for which did not remain at the rates paid to domestics. PLEA TO DUCK SHOOTERS (To the Editor.) Sir, —As a wild duck having for several seasons evaded the skill of the above gentry, I would ask you for a little space in your journal to air a grievance we have against our enemy, the man with the gun, and that is the shooting of immature birds, or what is known in sporting terms, as birds in the flapper stage. These are the late hatched ones, and until their wings are fully developed, their flight is extremelly difficult, in which case they become 'an easy prey to the zealous or tyro gunner. I especially urge this restraint upon sportsmen so as to prevent the more or less rapid depletion, and probably the eventual extinction of our species. I have often, wondered why some other target has not be found to share the burden with us of providing each season's sport. 1 believe an attempt. is being made to get our old friend the common snipe introduced to dwell among us and so become a ?harer in our lot. In other countries I have known him well and as a sporting proposition he will require of the gunner all the skill he can command to bring him to the bag. I am asking this indulgence on behalf of my fellow ducks. They do not regret becoming victims of legitimate shots, and dying noble deaths, but they do abhor the ignominy of being slaughtered when unable to offer a sporting chance in their own preservation. It may be my own lot to meet disaster, with many others, during the season now at hand, but I feel that, if such a fat befell me I shall not have died in vain if these few remarks are heeded, and the birds in the flapper stage are spared to afford sport later in the season, or act as decoys to others travelling from place to place. Yours, etc, AN OLD MALLARD. Masterton, May 3.