Nurse ‘asked for denial’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 3

Nurse ‘asked for denial’

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 1. A nurse at Oakley Hospital told the Commission of Inquiry today that she had been asked by a senior member of the nursing staff to deny publicly statements made by three nurses at the hearing.

Nurse M.-P. P. Farren said that instead of doing so, she had decided to make submissions in support of the other nurses’ statements.

taught to student nurses in the training school and what actually happened in the wards was extremely wide, she added. Yet it was the student nurse who was most involved with day-to-day caring for patients. “We are so busy feeding, bathing and tending to the general hygiene of patients that to have the time to help a patient put on make-up is a luxury.” Nurse Farren said the basic rates of pay for psychiatric nurses were not sufficient to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Without penal rates and overtime, her take-home pay for a fortnight was a little over $B6.

She told the inquiry, which is in its third week, that several other nurses had been approached during the last week and asked to. deny statements before the commission.

Miss Farren, a qualified general and opthalmic nurse who is in her third year of training as a psychiatric nurse, said that although staff at Oakley were working to full capacity, patients were still receiving only custodial care. The gap between what was

Mr L. H. Jones, assistant commissioner of the State Services Commission in Auckland, commented at today’s hearing on a statement by a witness yesterday that occupational therapists in psychiatric hospitals were paid at a lower rate than those working elsewhere.

He said he had investigated the statement, and found that occupational therapists in psychiatric hospitals had been offered equal pay in February. They had rejected the offer, and had since lodged another claim for a rate higher than other therapists.