Nurse From South Africa Describes Work At Home

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28821, 16 February 1959, Page 2

Nurse From South Africa Describes Work At Home

A young woman on a working holiday in New Zealand who has had interesting nursing experiences in South Africa, is Miss H. De Beer, of Middleburg, Cape Province. She decided to see Australia, arrived there last March, and combined seeing the country with working' in country hospitals in Western Australia and Victoria.

ed together and non-European nurses were much in demand for nursing their own people. African Babies As much as any of her work. Miss De Beer has enjoyed nursing native babies. They were so adorable with their chubby black limbs and flashing dark eyes, heads of frothy black “wool” and warm response to care and affection, that they were very spoiled by the nurses, she said. It was hard to part with them when it was time for their discharge. One baby who became her special pet, threw his arms round her neck and clung to her when his mother came to take him home. In the summer months, many babies were admitted with gastroenteritis, caused by poor food hygiene, faulty feeding and flyinfested dwellings. Malnutrition was common because it was difficult to press natives and coloured persons into eating sufficient protein. Meat and meal made of maize were their staple diet. When she had visited homes bn locations set aside for native peoples, she was astonished at the number of young children who would pour forth from one small dwelling. Until 1957, free beds had been supplied in public hospitals. Now there was a minimum charge of 10s. Even at that low rate, many native patients could not afford the amount in an outright payment and paid in small monthly instalments. An innovation in the nursing world in South Africa in 1958 was the holding of separate congresses for European, coloured and native nurses. It was thought that the differing problems of the three groups could be dealt with .better that way, and that the nursing services ot coloured and native nurses should be handled by themselves instead of by Europeans. Unmarried Mothers

“Once I was in Australia, I decided I must see New Zealand, too,” Miss De Beer said. She has worked in the public hospital in Tauranga and is now nursing at Calvary Hospital, Christchurch. She will leave to return home at the end of February. “This is a wonderful way to get to know the people of a country—by nursing them—you meet such a cross-section,” Miss De Beer said. She has also travelled widely in her own country, doing service in rural areas where 90 per cent, of the patients were nonEuropeans. She did her general nursing training in Cape Town and midwifery training in Boks-burg-Benoni.

Describing the arrangements for European, coloured and native patients, Miss De Beer said that although in many hospitals they were housed under the same roof, wards or floors were segrated. In many hospitals, non-European nurses and European nurses work-

Miss De Beer described the service for unmarried native mothers in Cape Town at St Anne’s Home in the heart of the non-European district Mothers were admitted one month before the birth of their babies, arrangements were made for their confinements and they .returned to the home for three months after the birth for rehabilitation classes, where personal hygiene, child care and domestic management were taught. Those who wished could have their babies adopted. A European matron and a European sister were in charge of the home and were assisted by a full-time cook and laundress. AU the other work was done by the mothers. ENGAGEMENT (Engagement notices must be signed by both oarties.) Broom—Bunt: The engagement is announced between Lorna Alice (Doona), daughter of Mr and Mrs W. J. M. Bunt, St. Andrews Hill, Christchurch, and Graham Basil, elder son of Mr and Mrs B. C. Broom, Brundall, Norfolk, England.