Qualifications For Nursing

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30428, 30 April 1964, Page 11

Qualifications For Nursing

The Nurses and Midwives Board of the Department of Health is to be asked by the North Canterbury Hospital Board to make provision for “community nurses” to undertake full nursing training without School Certificate if they have shown sufficient ability. This was decided by the hospital board yesterday on an almost unanimous vote. The Nurses and Midwives Board recently announced that, after 1966, all entrants to professional nursing courses would require School Certificate. Several hospital boards, including the North Canterbury board, passed resolutions condemning the move. At its meeting yesterday, the hospital board received two circulars from the Nurses and Midwives Board explaining the need for the change, and stating in particular that reciprocity of qualifications with nursing systems in other countries

would not be maintained unless the standard of entry to nursing in this country were raised. Mr V. J. Corbett wanted to know if the intention of the Nurses and Midwives Board was that routine bedside duties would be undertaken by what that board considered “academically unqualified” nurses. “Are we to reserve full training for a body of theorists?” he asked.

The medical superintend-ent-in-chief (Dr. L. McH. Berry) said much nursing did not involve highly-skilled care, and could be done by partly-trained persons. Where greater care and knowledge were needed, they would be given by a nurse trained to the highest standard. He added that at a Nurses and Midwives Board meeting next month, a plan would be considered to amalgamate the community nurse schemes now being run by various hospital boards and combining

them with each other and with nurse-aid programmes to form a national community nursing service. Miss M. B. Howard, M.P., complained that the Nurses and Midwives Board was ignoring the expressed wishes of several hospital boards in the matter of entry qualifications to nursing. Dr. L. C. L. Averill, the chairman, explained that the hospital boards had no jurisdiction in the matter: the Nurses and Midwives Board had merely been advertising its change of policy so that schoolgirls wishing to enter nursing could plan their school courses accordingly, Mr L. A. Bennett said it was important for the change to be made because of the increased responsibility held by nurses. “Unless a nurse is capable of understanding what is required in the care of a patient, that patient may die,” he said. Several members said they would be happy about the new policy if there were some provision for able community nurses to transfer to full nursing training. -When the hospital board had . inquired from the Nurses and Midwives Board as to the possibility of this, the answer was a clear “No.” It was decided to ask for some means to he n—vided for such transfers, only Mr D. Macmillan opposing