Hospitals unhappy with polytechnic training

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 22

Hospitals unhappy with polytechnic training

PA Wellington Several hospital boards are unhappy with the shift of nursing training from hospitals to polytechnics, the Hospital Boards Association’s Conference in Wellington has been told. Delegates at the conference said the technical institute programme caused financial hardship for students, and put boards in areas where there was no polytechnic at a disadvantage. The Government was transferring nursing training from hospital-based schools to technical institutes, they said. The chairman of the Wairarapa board, Mrs M. M. Inkster, said that if the 1 scheme went ahead boards in areas such as Masterton, where there was no polytech-

nic, would have to barter to get students to come to their hospitals. “People forget that these girls, if they are to do clinical training, face many extra costs that students who stay put in one place don't,” she said. A delegate from the Thames board said that many people were being denied nursing training because of financial restrictions. The chairman of the North Canterbury board, Mr T. C. Grigg, said the technical institute programme had failed to meet objectives set down last year. Recruitment numbers, especially of men, married women, and Maoris, had not improved, withdrawal rates had not dropped significantly, and the gulf between psychiatric

and general nurses did not seem to have narrowed, he said. Only 8.8 per cent of graduates from the technical institute programme were working in psychiatric hospitals. “How can we plan future staffing levels of psychiatric hospitals and back-up services with these reduced numbers available?” Mr Grigg said. Many delegates called for both systems of training to be maintained, but Mrs Margaret Bazley, the Health Department’s director of nursing, said the country was too small to have two systems. She said the transition had been planned successfully in Wellington, Blenheim, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay, and there were stable staffing patterns in these areas.