Labour Saving Hospital Aids Impress N.Z. Nurse

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30026, 10 January 1963, Page 11

Labour Saving Hospital Aids Impress N.Z. Nurse

“The Press’* Special Service

WELLINGTON, Jan. 10.

New Zealand nursing standards were as high as anywhere in the world, but some of the labour-saving equipment used in overseas hospitals was an eye-opener, said Miss Patricia Plunkett, a New Zealand nurse, on her return to New Zealand. Miss Plunkett, who trained at Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, was abroad for three years and a half. She joined the staff of Guy’s Hospital, London, for a year, an experience she ■ found most enjoyable with the exception of having to starch and launder the unusual fluted white caps worn by the nurses, tied with a large bow under the chin. To get them in their correct flutes and bow, one needed to be an expert laundress, she said. With a friend, Miss Patricia Young, since returned to Auckland, Miss Plunkett decided to try nursing in Europe. To this end she learnt Danish, partly by lessons in London before leaving, and partly from the friendly, hospitable Danes who welcomed them. The friends were in Denmark to share a traditional Danish Christmas. Miss Plunkett in the last four years managed to spend a Christmas in Scotland, one in England, one in Denmark, and the latest aboard ship. She spent six months in Copenhagen at a modern hospital working in the labour

wards. The hospital beds impressed her. They could be moved into any position by a lever and when the patient needed to be taken to the theatre, the bed legs had wheels that came down, doing away with the necessity of lifting a patient from bed to stretcher.

Syringes and needles that were thrown away after use and a card with samples of the patient’s blood and information on their blood group, carried by most people in Denmark, were other modern methods she noticed. But perhaps the one that appealed most was a portable addressograph type of machine, used in all wards, which saved nurses writing out charts and eliminated errors.

Each ward, she said, had one of these machines, which with the pressure of a hand, printed a form, complete with the patient’s name, address, and medical information.

After leaving Denmark, Miss Plunkett nursed privately in London. She will return to an Auckland hospital after visiting relatives in Southland for a month.