Tax relief for nurses sought

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 16

Tax relief for nurses sought

Expenses incurred by nurses for their education after registration, other than those paid by an employer, should be exempt from income tax.

The annual conference of the New Zealand Nurses’ Association agreed on this yesterday and decided to approach the Minister of Finance (Mr Rowling) about the matter.

The association will also urge the Minister of Health (Mr Tizard) to implement the recommendation of the

Royal Commission on Health and Related Services and set up an institute of psychiatry. There was much discussion about the training and licencing of midwives and tt was agreed that the DirectorGeneral of Health be asked to require midwives in the domicilary field to have special licences with the aim of maintaining satisfactory standards in this field. The association decided that hospital boards should have a clearly defined policy and programme for hospitals and staff in anticipation of disasters which required the! mobilisation of the Civil ( Defence organisation. Refer-( ence was made to the recent flooding in Christchurch and the delegate for Canterbury mental health nurses, Mrs B. Milligan, said that in such cases nurses did not know where their responsibilities lay— at home with their families, or at work. ' The conference will approach the hospital boards about the matter.

Other subjects discussed and resolved at the conference included many reforms that would utimately improve the status and conditions of nurses and the standard of the nursing service for the public.