Chch. Hospitals Plan For Community Nurses

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 2

Chch. Hospitals Plan For Community Nurses

“Community nurse” is a term which will become familiar in Christchurch when the hospitals adopt a scheme to provide much-needed staff for basic nursing care.

The North Canterbury Hospital Board is waiting for the Government’s decision • on whether these I nurses may be officially i registered. “At the moment we are still planning,” said Mrs N. Chambers. matron in chief at the Christchurch Hospital yesterday. “It will probably be about a year before the scheme comes into being here.” Providing service for patients always had to come first, and this sometimes effected a nurse’s educational progress. Often a nurse would have to be moved to a different ward to work, whether it was suitable for her or not. Miss Chambers said. The “community nurse” was brought into being by the Nurses’ and Midwives’ Board when this position reached a worrying peak two years ago. Feeding patients, making beds, and taking temperatures —work which does not require

highly specialised training—is the community nurses’ job. While her work is just as important as that of the registered general nurses, it does relieve them of the burden of many routine tasks. IN PROGRESS The community nursing programme is in progress at 15 hospitals, including several in the South Island, and others may adopt it soon. If they are officially registered the nurses will be awarded certificates and a specially designed medal after training. Hundreds of community nurses are now training and working in New Zealand, and registration is expected to be an inducement for others to take up the work. The strain on the nursing profession has been eased by their work, but it has not completely solved the problem. FILLING GAP “For a long time there has been concern that general nurses had to carry out the tasks of a lesser nature—tasks which could be done by a person with not so much training,” Miss A. H. Orbell, director of nursing for the Wellington Department of Health, said in Wellington. “At one time it was thought that the nurse-aid would fill the gap. This was not so.” Five thousand general nurses were in training in this country, but “it would be more economical in a recruitment sense if there could be fewer general nurses and a higher percentage of community nurses to staff our hospitals and work in the field.” Miss Chambers considers the scheme an excellent one, making the provision of service to patients much easier. “This is always the first aim of the hospital,” she said. “These nurses would have a separate grade, and could be moved from ward to ward as the need arose.” TRAINING Candidates for the course need no special qualifications. After a year’s training there is an examination, and six months’ clinical experience must be gained before beginning work. Duties are carried out un-

der the supervision of staff nurses and ward sisters, often in a team with registered nurses. This is the kind of occupation that often appeals to older women who have not had the opportunity to become nurses, or to the girl who may be suitable for general nursing but wants a shorter course.