NURSES' HOURS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 8

NURSES' HOURS.

OBJECTIONS TO THE NEW BILL

jw The provision in. the new Hospitals ne and Charitable Institutions Bill pree<l scribing 56 hours of duty per week for l £- hospital nurses —or an eight hours' day a( j —is strongly objected to by those who h e have to do- with the administration of at hospital affairs. The case for those •ss who oppose the suggested new order of things wa* strongly put by Miss Thursj> n ton, matron of the Christchurch. Hospice tal, in conversation with a representau £ tive of this journal yesterday afternoon. Nt Miss Thurston pointed out that it was 1-5 impossible to lay down hard-and-fast *f hours for the guidance of any profesF* sion, and niuch less in 'hospital nursing. * n "As soon as you provide trade union ' ie hours," she said, "the profession ceases °" to be a profession, and becomes a mere as trade which can be commenced and left ™ off at any stage. In hospitals it is "> the unexpected that is always happening, and emergencies more frequently lW arise than anything else, almost. To j meet these you must have some elastic system of duty which will place the ie maximum of assistance at disposal when 16 it is most needed, and lighten the m labours of everybody when there is very i s little to do." The sneaker went on to d say that there was at present in course le of development at the Christchurch Hosj s pital a system of hours which, if it ij. were approved of by the Board., would j_ tend greatly to increase the efficiency ie of the institution. This was in the *t direction of bringing on duty during te the hours that the heavy routine work c _ (such as bed-making, wasting the , c patients, cleaning the wards, etc.) had n to be done the largest number of nurses «! possible, so as to render tho tasks less c fatiguing to the individual members of IS the nursing staff It would probably h mean that the day nurses would have i, to work eight hours of broken time per j. diem, and that the night nun>es* would d be on duty for ten hours continuously, v- To compensate for the extra hours, it >. was proposed to allow the nurses a full i. day off every month, and to increase h their hoiiday leave. Although the I. speaker was not at liberty to give dee tails of the proposed new system until g it had been approved by the Board, she n felt convinced that it would be in the II interests of the patients (which should i- be their first consideration), and it if would give the nurses improved train- ;, ing. The system was modelled on tie t lines of those in vogue in the best Lon--0 don and American hospitals (with the - difference of shorter hours), and she s thought that Christchurch could not <i make any serious mistake in following a such notable examples. y In regard to the method of carrying - out the nursing work at present, Miss 3 Thurston said they had a nominal eight - hours system in force, %vith three shifts. v The sisters in charge of the wards, how--1 ever, had to work longer hours. With i three eight-hour shifts it meant that a - nurse was off for sixteen hours at a i stretch. That was a very bad thing a both for the patient and for the nurse. 3 The patient was in too ma.ny hands, i and it was difficult to trace any faults - or mistakes. The* nurse lost touch with s a critical case. During her absence of * sixteen hours the patient might have - improved or have died. In the first > instance, the nurse would have lost the > observation of an important nhase of ' the case, and thus her training suf- > fered. Under the new system that was ' being evolved the nurse would never 5 be away from her case for long at a b stretch, and both patient and ' nurse would benefit by that. ■ Everybody knew that nursing b tinued for long spells at a time Shad a I most exhausting effect upon the a nurses, and it was a fact.that there r were fewer cases of breakdown where . the time on duty was trokon (even though the aggregate of liours actually '. worked was greater) than where shifts T I of eight hours' nursing -were I worked. As indicating what-those in ( the profession thoueht on the matter, t \ the speaker , mentioned that at a recent . meeting of the Christchurch. < 1 Trained Nurses' Association, ■ the eight j ' hours' system as now (nominally) work- x ed was unanimously opposed. ] If the provisions of the new BUI £ came into force, making it compulsory J for all nurses,to work only eight hours ] per diem, it would not only decrease £ the efficiency of tho hospitals, but it I would vastly increase the cost of ad- s ministration. They would have to in- J crease the nursing staffs, and that I would mean not only more to pay In a salaries, but there would be the addi- 5 tional expense of housing and feeding 4 the extra nurses required. Efficiency I could not be expected when the work* 3 was travelling-through co many hands. Not only would the patients not get c the same amount of interested atten- b tion, from their nurses, but the sen so 3 of responsibility owing to the load be- S mc so -widely shared would' be propor- b tionately diminished. If only a ocr- J tain number of nurses could be placed ok duty at a given time, it meant that 1 when the heavy routine work was to a be done there would be a hurry and b scurry at certain periods of the day, 1 which would be most prejudicial to the a patients; while at other times thero 1 would be not nearly enough work to l< go round. That meant a decided A waste of energy. All these difficul- E ties would be completely overcome E by the "new system that was in view. When a rush of -work came, a large ° number of nurses -would be put on to ? do it, and when there was very little ito do only just a sufficient number t" •would be kept on duty. "I cannot £ understand," Miss Thurston concluded, £ •'why the eight-hour clause was put \ into the Bill. Nobody who knows any- V thing about hospital work could pos- G sibly want it, and we can only hope II fo»- the sake of the efficiency of every b< hospital in the Dominion that it will B be withdrawn." . • . ir A local doctor who is much interested 3' in the matter said the idea of the new t< system being evolved for the Christ- Vi church Hospital was to mass tHe nurses when the -work -was heaviest, and thus R ensure that every (probationer was in * company with a senior nurse, to gefl the benefit of her experience. Nowhere I* in England and America that he had £j seen was the three-ehift system in force. » lAt one of the best American hospitals— J" the John Hopkins Hospital at Balti- *" more, the day nurees worked eight hours, and the night nurees ten. The * hours of individual day nurses were as if follows:—7 a.m. to 1 p.m., 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., 2 p.m. to 7 p.m:, 7-12, 1-4. 7-1, 5-7. In Etvgland f _ much the-same system was followed, , only two shifts being worked. With , three ehifte there were three ye ttinities for error in each case. There T f was no with to overwork the nurses, "* nor would their number be decreased. '£ What -was aimed at -was to secure a * h more elastic system, and to give the ar nurses a better In private practice nurses had to work much *L" longer than eight hours a day. and be *" felt that those- who would cavil ■at the possibility under a more elastic system . of give-and-take, would never make tn good nurses. * v fePEOIAL TO "THE PBBM.") WELLINGTON, December 2. P a The proposed eight-hour day for *L< nurses was the subject of adverse com- 51 ment at a meeting of the District Hos- ov ; pital Board yesterday. It was pointed out that it would be impossible to work X the eight-hour system at the Otaki Hos- Gc pital and Sanatorium, end the Board re l decided to place it on record , that they " were not in favour of the retention of *^J clause 128 of the Hospitals and Ghari- z% table Institutions Bill in so far as the Jd ' provision for a fifty-six-hour -week ie concerned. ] The secretary was instructed to forward p a the following telegram to all District apj Hospital Boards in New Zealand:— Hv "Wellington District! Hospital Board obi