NURSES’ SALARIES

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20739, 24 February 1939, Page 2

NURSES’ SALARIES

NO EARLY IMPROVEMENT HOSPITALS UNDERSTAFFED £ (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Thursday The need to improve the wages and working conditions of nurses was dis- \ cussed by the Wellington Hospital Board to-night. Advice was received that the Health Department was not t agreeable to nurses' salaries being increased at present, because of the 3 possibility of an award being issued: also, that a suggestion that nurses in •. training! should be allowed to live out i in their own homes was not viewed with favour. After members had stressed the difficulty of obtaining nurses under present conditions it was decided to ask the department to reconsider its decision. Mr A. W. -Croskery said the hospital was understaffed and there was 1 no accommodation for extra nurses. It had been suggested that the board 2 might obtain pupil nurses who could live in their own homes. The pro--3 posed salary increase was not large, n Nurses at present were paid £45 a * year and it had been suggested that they should receive £55, with a living i. out allowance of £52. Every hospital board in New Zealand was at its wits' end to know how to meet the shortage of nurses, said Mr Croskery. Until the profession 1 was made somewhere as attractive as other employment sufficient young 2 women would not be obtained.