WHAT HAS NURSING TO OFFER ME?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 167, 4 September 1942, Page 12

WHAT HAS NURSING TO OFFER ME?

ce ARD work and not much pay," many a young woman may retort, and, lured by initially higher wages and superficially easier working conditions may choose in preference a job in shop or factory or office. But great as is the need to-day for women in industry, on the land and in the armed forces, the needs of the nursing services are by no means to be despised. The young woman who enrols for hospital training at-the present time is doing a necessary wartime job, and is furthermore fitting herself for a worthwhile peacetime career. The question "What has nursing to offer me?" is perhaps better answered by one who knows something of the subject from personal experience. Here is the answer given by a member of the Nursing Division of the Department of Health. "Useful and Satisfying Service" "I would say," she said, " that nursing offers any reasonably intelligent and capable girl a career of useful and satisfying service. ‘"And its material rewards are not to be despised. Economically, nursing compares very favourably with other professions for women. A nurse can earn her living while she is training, and at the conclusion of her training a well-paid position is waiting for Her. Moreover, the qualified nurse has a wide choice of positions open to her, and she can specialise in the type of work that appeals to her." "How long does the training take?" "Three years and three months. Training may begin at any age between nineteen and thirty. The first two or three

months are spent in preliminary school, after which the nurse is assigned to wards and other hospital departments for practical nursing experience. Examinations are taken after one year, and at the conclusion of the course of training. The trainee then becomes a qualified nurse." " What avenues are open to her then?" "If she likes she can continue her work in general hospital. Or she can specialise by undergoing a further course of training to qualify as a maternity nurse or midwife, or perhaps as a Plunket nurse. If she is of an adventurous disposition and likes to be independent, she may become a District Health Nurse,

"But perhaps the branch of nursing that appeals most strongly to the qualified nurse of to-day is the Army Nursing Service. Hundreds of our New Zealand nurses have gone overseas to staff base hospitals and hospital ships, hundreds are employed in clearing hospitals and in soldiers’ wards all through New Zealand." The Need is Desperate "So that now nurses are needed more than ever before?" "Yes. There’s an almost desperate need. But we feel confident that once the need is realised many young women will volunteer for service. After all we’re not asking them to undertake a disagreeable task purely from patriotic motives, though of course that comes into it. No, we're asking them to start now on a job that is not, like so many jobs nowadays, a dead end, but which will provide them with a lifetime of interesting and creative work. We're asking them to do a job that is vital to the maintenance of public health and happiness. We are asking them to devote three years of their life to working hard and training hard, but at the end of it we can promise them a career to be proud of."