BOGUS NURSES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 4, 30 September 1907, Page 3

BOGUS NURSES.

English .'nurses havo long had at their finger tips dozens of stories about women,who,.to serve their own evil-ends,: and without a vestigo of professional 'training,, liaro donned a uniform- and gono forth to plunder the unwary. In .fact tiio costume lias been so frequently uiscredited, that a bona lklc nurse, will not, if she can help it, wear her uniform in the street." ■ • Quite'-recently publicity .was 6 ivcn to the ease, of u Woman who, by means of. clever sc'iieiiiing and a forged- .certificate, 1 succeeded in gaining admission to a rich household in the Midlands, and who a few days later decamped with much valuable 1 jewellery. This led a London paper to make' enquiry into the prospects of success' for ; women .''who go in for this line of business, • and the information gained must havo proved disquieting to pcoplo who aro not well informed as to the status of various nursing homes, but have'in times of sudden illness to re!p upon tho capabilities of.: tHo . first nurse they can .get. -' It was shown that many nursing- home's aro connected with such-.laxity,- that it is s _quito. easy for a clever woman to gain admission to one, from which next day sho may be sent .as nurse to some fashionable house, where she -will have every opportunity, for plundering.' Thieve are shady nursing homes which do not scruple to send out unskilled women in'order to collect as with' equal disregard:of the patient s safety,: or tho home's reputation. One trained nurse said she- had heard of /Quito a hundred cases of more Or less serious ( thefts committed by yeomen thieves successfully posing as' nurses.'' Curious stories were' told by . those ..who had . suffered: at- the hands .women, and one wellknown i doctor said ho "knew of at ,'at .least a 'dozen homes where tho igridraiico of nursing dis-played.'-would . bo; laughable were it not for the..serious" consequences; involved. V', In visiting one 'such homo he found the-."staff" had gone out for, a walk, while- the' patients, two' of, these' in a precarious condition, had been left to the attentions of the housemaid. ' Another 'and' rather tall story told,' was of a'bogus nurse who had macle such a good use,'of her opportunities. that -,when lier day of restitution came, six' vans . were required to bear away her spoil. ■ England badly requires sbme' such system as wo* havo in New Zealand for the. registration of nurses, and the consequent safe-guarding ,of both the. genuine, nurses,and, the ..public.