Psych, nurse shortage

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 10

Psych, nurse shortage

PA Wellington Psychiatric nurses throughout the country, concerned about staff shortages, would probably decide on industrial Action at a meeting in Wellington on July 1. according to a Public Service Association spokesman.

Mr Francis Wevers. a P.S.A. advocate, said action taken by nurses would probably not affect patient care but would be aimed at disrupting administrative services.

The meeting planned for July 1 would include representatives of psychiatric staff from all hospital board districts and the Health Department's Lake Alice institution.

Guarantees are likely to be sought for incentives to boost nursing training, said Mr Wevers.

A stop-work meeting had already been called by Porirua Hospital nursing staff for July 2. and similar meetings around that time are expected at the Carrington Hospital (Auckland), CherryFarm (Otago), and at most other psychiatric institutions in provincial areas.

The association had not yet had a request for a meeting at Sunnyside Hospital in Christchurch though it too was having a dispute over staff shortages, Mr Wevers said.

Mr Wevers said hospital staffs were most concerned about the lack of qualified nurses to supervise wards al night. The problem, he said, was chronic and deep seated. The system was not providing sufficient people to meet the demand for nursing skills, he said.

Hospital boards were closing wards and transferring

patients back into the community in order to conserve resources.

"That is being' done at a time when the increasing number of victims of the present economic downturn need the help of psychiatric resources to overcome their stress,” he said.

The Health Department could be asked to increase the number of tutors for psychiatric nurses. Many

people wanted to be psychiatrie nurses but the department set the intakes and there were not enough tutors to cater for more, said Jfr Wevers.

The chairman of the Porirua Hospital P.S.A. sub group. Mr Bud Lavery, said that unqualified nurses’ at the hospital not only gave out drugs to patients, but actually made them up f« ; - dispensing.