NURSING IS A FULL AND SATISFYING CAREER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 23

NURSING IS A FULL AND SATISFYING CAREER

A girl must be 17 before she can begin her nursing training, and must also pass a medical examination, which includes a chest X-ray. A minimum of two years’ secondary education is required, but prospective nurses are recommended to have at least three or four years' schooling if this is possible. A good general education is necessary so that nurses can approach their theoretical studies and examinations with confidence. Some hospitals will not now accept girls for training unless they have school certificate. The general nursing training course takes three years, and includes maternity nursing. State examinations are taken between nine and 12 months after commencing training, and at the end of the course. Those who pass this final examination qualify as State registered nurses. Three months is spent at the beginning of the first year in preliminary training, when the basic nursing arts and sciences are studied—practice In the care of patients, and introduction to public health and social services; and subjects such as anatomy and physiology, nutrition, microbiology, and pharmacology. _ The remainder of the time in the first year is spent in the hospital wards, and in studying maternity nursing, child nursing, and elementary medical and surgical nursing, as well as further study in the above-mentioned subjects. The second year’s training includes practical work in the wards, and'the further study of medical and surgical nursing, child nurs-

ing, communicable diseases, and work in an operating theatre. The third year's training consists of further practical work and more advanced study for the final State nursing examination, including further study and practice in maternity nursing.

During her training, and after, what are the nurse’s particular duties?

Nurses are responsible for the actual bedside care of the patients. They see to their physical and mental well-being, and carry out doctors’ instructions for medicine, treatment and diet. They must note carefully any change in the condition of a patient, an<j assist at treatments and operations. Their duties include washing and feeding patients, bedmaking, giving injections, applying dressings, supervising blood transfusions, sterilising instruments and equipment, and making ward reports.

In order to gain wide experience, nurses work for short periods m all types of wards—medical, children’s, infectious, surgical, maternity, orthopaedic, etc. —as well as in the operating theatre, diet kitchen and the casualty and out-patients’ departments. At the end of her general training, a nurse may take a post-certificate course .in many branches of nursing. These include midwifery, psychiatry, occupational therapy, plastic surgery, neuro-surgery, dietetics, public health, and Plunket nursing. During her training, a nurse lives with other girls of her own age in a nurses* home.

Her hours of work In the wards will be eight each day (including meal times), either in the morning, in the afternoon, or during the night. She has one day off each week, and 28 days’ leave each year. Her training course is aranged so that she has a study day away from the wards each week of every term. This means that she will seldom have to attend lectures during ward duty or off-duty time. This allows her sufficient free time to keep up her own interests and to join with others in organisations and sports clubs of all kinds. In addition to her weekly pay, a nurse gets free board anc lodging—which may often be of a more comfortable standard than she would enjoy in her own home. She is supplied with her uniforms, which are kept mended and laundered for her. A shoe and stocking allowance is paid to her in instalments during the year. v She also receives free medical attention should she fall sick. Each year she receives an increase in salary. Basic salary rates for student nurses are: First year ........ £248 Second year ...... £266 Third year ...... £277 Overtime is paid where a nurse is called on to work more than 40 hours a week. On completion of training, a staff nurse receives £440, A sister’s salary starts at £487 and rises to £597 according to her years of service and the nature of her work.