FOR WOMEN FALSE PICTURE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 218, 14 September 1944, Page 3

FOR WOMEN FALSE PICTURE

MENTAL NURSING

"ILL-FOUNDED CRITICISM"

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. ''There has been a great deal of criticism—some of it entirely illfounded, much of it mischievous and most of it entirely uninformed concerning the duties and responsibilities of our psychiatric nurses, stated the Minister of Health, Mr. Nordmeyer, in the House of Representatives last night, when moving the second reading of the Nurses and Midwives Registration Amendment Bill. Mr. Nordmeyer quoted from the annual report of the Director-Gene-ral of Mental Hospitals a passage which he said he wished to underline concerning the loyalty of mental nurses, in spite of the shortage of staff. He wished that some,,of the harm that had been done by illinformed criticism, particularly some statements that had been made in connection with manpower appeals, might be undone, because it was to be regretted that a totally wrong impression of mental nursing had been created in the minds of manv young women, who otherwise would be quite willing, and in some cases possibly anxious, to undertake a course of training in a mental hospital. ... The facts were that, notwithstanding difficulties at the present time, mental nurses had to undertake work which in many respects was parallel to the work undertaken by nurses in general hospitals. An entirely false distinction, however, was often drawn. _ Mr. Nordmeyer said he admitted that in some cases wards were dismal, dincry and dark, but that was due to the fact that there had been handed down in many cases buildings which were erected at a time when it was thought that the proper kind of building for mental patients was something approximating a gaol. He shared the view expressed by the Prime Minister that the time must come when all the older institutions would be replaced by modern buildings, and particularly by villas. He hoped that time would come soon.