Nursing students ‘can return’

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 19

Nursing students ‘can return’

. Dunedin sixteen students, dismissed from the Dunedin School of Nursing for failing under the schools evaluation policy, have been offered reinstatement to the training programmes.

Five final-year and nine first-year students have been offered unconditional right of re-entry. Two first-year students. who did not sit a special examination to which they were entitled, will be re-admitted if their reasons for not sitting are considered reasonable by an independent working party of three, set up by the Otago Hospital Board to examine problems at the school.

The decision was the result of an interim report and was unanimously approved by the board.

Mrs D. R. Fraser, chairman of the board, said the issue was treated urgently. The main point now was “to get the students back into nursing as soon as possible.” Mrs Fraser would not release the contents of the interim report that led to the decision to reinstate the nurses.

However, the “Otago Daily Times,” obtained the contents of the interim report which shows that the decision by the working party was unanimous.

"On the basis of the evidence we have examined, we are strongly of the view that the existing evaluation policy of the board, and the manner in which it has been applied, are unsatisfactory in a number of respects.” the report says.

"While agreeing with the tutorial staff that some, of the student nurses may not succeed ultimately, we are

absolutely certain that all students have been detrimentally affected by the inadequacies and inconsistencies that obviouslv exist.”

After the meeting. Mrs Fraser agreed that some students would have lost money, and the issue of compensation “could very well be a matter for consideration.”

The southern regional adviser for the New Zealand Nurses Association, Mrs Edman Thomas, of Christchurch. said, “A lot of money has been involved in appeal procedures and legal fees to prove what the board has now come to accept.” She said the students and their families had been through a traumatic time, and the issue of compensation would have to be looked at. ‘I asked the board to reinstate the nures ’ and they turned me down. The working party has supported me

and I am delighted,” she said.

“The association awaits the rest of the working party’s report and recommendations.” Mrs Thomas said. “I hope with their implementation the Otago School of Nursing will once again become a respected and a good school of nursing."

The nurses offered reinstatement will have to start six months back in their programme to catch up. Not all of them will take up the option to return to the school, at least immediately. Miss Kate Paterson, a finalyear student, has since taken up an offer by the Grey School of Nursing to complete her nursing studies on the West Coast. Two of the first-year students have begun university studies, and another has taken alternative employment.