Nurses allowed to wear uniforms to work

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 3

Nurses allowed to wear uniforms to work

A recommendation that nurses be allowed to wear their uniforms to and from work was passed by the Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday. But allowing nurses to wear their uniforms to and from work was unlikely to save $1 million, the board was told. A board member, Mrs Caroline Cartwright, said she did not believe that cutting the six minutes at the beginning and end of each shift that nurses now received as changing time would give the $1 million savings suggested by executive staff.

“I believe the saving of money is an illusion,” she said.

The board’s finance department said last month that each nurse was given 12 minutes a day or one hour a week to change into or out of uniforms.

The director of finance, Mr David Herman, said that if nurses could be at the workplace instead of changing, nursing output could possibly be increased 2.5 per cent. In money terms, this was equivalent to about $1 million. The board's chief executive, Mr Ron Parker, said that the word “saving” was misleading. “We will not be saving — just transferring resources from non-produc-tive use to patient care.” The acting chief nurse, Mrs Brenda Wilson, said that in one ward the time saved by not allowing the 12 minutes to change was 20 hours a week.

Staff were quite happy with the proposal as long as changing facilities and lockers were still available for those who wished to change at work, she said.