Editorial

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIII, Issue 3, 1 July 1920, Page 105

Editorial

We are awaiting with great interest the account of the deliberations of the three councils which have been appointed under the Minister of Health to form the regulations necessary under the Acts for the Registration of Nurses for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. We have received copies of these Acts, and they are really skeletons providing for registration, and leaving all detail beyond the appointment of a General Nursing Council, which will consist of 25 members, to be worked out m regulations : — On first constitution the Council shall be composed of two persons, who shall not be registered medical practitioners, or nurses, or persons concerned with the regular direction or provision of the services of nurses, appointed by the Privy Council; Two persons appointed by 'the Board of Education; Five persons appointed by the Minister of Health, after consultation with persons and

bodies having special knowledge and experience of training schools for nurses, of the work of matrons of hospitals, of general and special nursing services, and of general and special medical practice; Sixteen persons, who are or have at some time been nurses actually engaged m rendering services m direct connexion with the nursing of the sick, appointed by the Minister of Health after consultation with the Central Committee for the State Registration of Nurses, the College -of Nursing, the Royal British Nurses 7 Association, and such other associations or organised bodies of nurses or matrons as represent to the Minister that they desire to be consulted m the matter. The Minister, m making appointments under this provision, shall have regard to the desirability of including m the Council per- • sons having experience m the various forms of nursing. It will be seen that a very representative Council will have the forming of the

regulations, m accordance with which the registration of nurses already trained, and the training of future nurses, will be carried out. In New Zealand, where, 20 years ago, the Registration Act was passed, the administration was vested m a Government Department, and the regulations, which, with some additions and modifications, have existed ever since, were framed by a trained nurse and medical men. This arrangement has answered very well m a country where there were practically no vested interests to be considered, where the training schools wene young and for the most part glad to fall m with the nev^' law, and to comply with the curriculum of training laid down; but it is questionable whether the time has not come when the nurses should have a more direct part m the administration of the law which controls the profession.

All the Acts and proposed Bills for nurses' registration m different countries provide for the appointment of a council on which nurses shall be represented. The fact that m the Department governing the New Zealand Act the officials m charge of the administration of the Act are nurses, working under the medical head of the Department, has probably so satisfied the members of the profession that they have not asked for more direct representation. Some small amendments of the Act will probably be made this session, the most important being the reduction of the age for registration from 23 to 21. Girls will now be able to enter hospital soon after leaving school, and m this way it is hoped that some who are lost to the profession by being obliged to take up some other occupation on the completion of their school education may now be secured for the profession for which women are more eminently suited than any other.