Hospital Board Fears Nurse Is Being Punished

Press, Volume C, Issue 29701, 20 December 1961, Page 16

Hospital Board Fears Nurse Is Being Punished

••The Press" Special Service

AUCKLAND, Dec. 19. The Auckland Hospital Board is concerned at the suggestion of punitive measures taken by the Nurses’ and Midwives’ Board against a nurse who became pregnant while in training and who now wishes to resume training. The nurse had been told by the Nurses’ and Midwives Board that it required her to do six months’ probation as a nurse aid before it would allow her to resume training. It would also deduct six months from the training she had already completed. The Auckland Hospital Board will express its concern at the implications of the case to the Nurses’ and Midwives’ Board. It will recommend that any pupil nurse wishing to re-enter nursing after an absence should be allowed to do so on conditions recommended by local hospital adiministrations Fairness Questioned A hospital bdard member, Mr G. G. Talbot, who brought the subject to the board’s said the girl had left

the board’s employ after completing two years and four months’ training. She had done well in her examinations. The case raised several questions. Was the girl being treated fairly in her efforts to rehabilitate herself as a nurse? It should be possible, he said, to form • an opinion of her suitability without six months’ probation. And was it fair to deduct six months from the training she had already done? "To me it seems important in the interests of both the girl and the board to get this girl back into training as soon as possible," said Mr Talbot. "It also raises the question of principle adopted in these unfortunate cases Is the nursing profession a little out-of-date in its approach?” Superintendent's View Dr. W. E. Henley, the supenntendent-in-chief. said he considered the nurse's own former matron best fitted to give an opinion of her ™l“ re . Potentialities. If the report was favourable and the matron-in-chief

agreed, any victimisation should be outlawed. Responsibility should be accepted for considerate and understanding rehabilitation, and the Nurses’ and Midwives’ Board should be asked to agree. Dr. Henley said he thought the rights of the Nurses’ and Midwives’ Board in judging the moral character of the nurse, in taking punitive action, and in divulging medical history should be investigated by the hospital board Committee's Report The board’s finance committee said it was appreciated that a pupil nurse who was absent from training for eight months could not expect to re-enter with full credit for the exact period ° rPer previous experience The best any re-entrani could expect would ,be to re-enter with a class which was at least eight months behind her class previously Any re-entrant who could not keep up would be transferred to a later class. As al! pupil nurses continued training subject to satisfactory conduct, moral character, and professional standards, the committee felt that the imposition of probation plus an arbitrary penalty of six months war strongly suggestive of punitive measures. y-