Nursing Director’s Comment On Shortage Of Midwives

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29108, 21 January 1960, Page 14

Nursing Director’s Comment On Shortage Of Midwives

(New Zealana Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 20.

A report in the press was the first information she had had that there was a shortage of trained staff at the Holmdale maternity hospital, said Miss F. J. Cameron, director of the Nursing Division of the Department of Health, in Wellington today. She was commenting on what was described as ‘‘the acute shortage of midwives” by Mrs E. M R. Fairhall, a member of the Marlborough Hospital Board. ‘‘This always happens over the holiday period when nurses seem to choose to move to new posititions at this time,” said Miss Cameron. The report, as she interpreted it, probably meant that several of the board's maternity staff had left. Other hospitals, in turn, seemed to suffer similarly. The depletion of maternity starts was not so marked during the year.

Admittedly the position regarding the number of midwives available was a “little under” requirements. said Miss Cameron She said she hoped hospitals would see a decided improvement when nurses sat the examination in June which would provide, as a result, more maternity nurses. Obstetrics was recently put into basic nursing training. The move would have the result of providing many more nurses with maternity qualifications than in the past. The department’s objective was to have one nursing staff member to every patient in all maternity hospitals.