OUT-OF-DATE IDEAS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 221, 19 June 1928, Page 3

OUT-OF-DATE IDEAS

IN OUR PUBLIC HOSPITALS THE PROBATIONERS’ LOT Whilst a great deal is being done to provide new administrative blocks and better accommodation for in and outpatients in our hospital (all of which is doubtless needed), there is still much (writes "J.R.”) that could be improved upon in connection with the staff. I refer more particularly to the probationers, who have the menial work of the wards to attend to the twenty-four hours through. From what I have been able to gather, the staff administration is a- slave to the ideas of thirty years ago. . One would imagine that of all places in the world a public hospital would be the first place wherein any hygienic reform in dress would at once be given effect to. Such is not the castb The probationers—who have to do .a good deal of scrubbing and bending—have to wear starched, close-fitting collars that dig into the neck at the slightest side movement and which in warm weather are a positive discomfort. Their dresses are made to fit the figure closely, leaving next to no play for the body; they are made, so that there will be no, material to pleat up when the stiff starched belt is buckled to. Surely the hospital authorities cannot think that this uniform (which certainly looks neat and clean) is either comfortable or healthy for the probationers. Hospital dress has been reformed long ago in America and in our own private hospitals. One of the duties of the probationers is to feed the patients—no light task to feed between 400 and 500 people three times a day or more. As they did a quarter of a century ago, the meals are taken into each patient on heavy wooden trays, strong, enough built to serve a miners’ camp, and when these heavily-laden wooden trays are carried almost the length of the ward some 20 times the '■task would become irksome to the strongest. A handy form of dining “waiter” with rubber wheels would obviate much of the daily grind of this work at a cost little more than these archaic trays of tribulation. I wonder are the members of the Hospital Board aware that two probationers in the Nurses’ Home of the Wellington Hospital have to share one poky little room, originally built as single rooms to accommodate one nurse—so small that in order to dress in comfort one has either to leave the room or stay in bed whilst the other dresses. I wonder do the members of the board know that the probationers get cake once a week only—on Sundays; and that the girls who arrive on the scene a few minutes late get no cake at all, as the amount provided does not allow of any being left after the first rush? Do members of the board know that probationers are expected to use the one knife for their meat and vegetables, butter and jam? If not, this will tell- them that such is the case. It is not the writer’s intention to/stir up trouble, nor ‘even to complain bitterly, but sometimes it may be wise, in the interests of reasonable reform, to let a little light

If there is any doubt as to the truth of the foregoing statements, perhaps a return ‘of the number of probationers who have left the Wellington Hospital within two months of entering for the past year and past five years would be interesting.

[Replying to the above letter, Mr. C. M. Luke, chairman of the Hospital Board, says: “Your correspondent appears to be under the impression that the Hospital Board are lacking in consideration for the staff. Doubtless he would alter his opinion were he converstant with the difficulties which the administration has had to contend with recently. There has recently been a little overcrowding in the Nurses’ Home, and also in the hospital wards. To cope with this, new buildings have been erected, and recently opened. In completing these the board has all along had in mind the provisions of improved quarters for both nurses and maids. Although the administration block has only recently been opened, the superintendent has already formulated plans for the extension aud accommodation for nurses and maids, and this without further capital expenditure. Your correspondent must surely realise that everything cannot be attended to at once. The board has already accepted tenders for the food trolleys, which arc to be for the use of members in the wards. Concerning the complaint re nurses’ food. There has always been plenty of cake for all on Sundays. Suggestions that the administration is a slave to the ideas of thirty years ago are absurd. If your correspondent would take-the trouble to look nt the uniforms of nurses thirty years ago, "their skirts sweeping the floors,” he would realise how hygienic the present uniform is. It is known that many nurses are still opposed to the abolition of starched collars and cuffs. Reforms in the matter of this kind go slowly. As a matter of fact, these very forms are already receiving the consideration of the

administration. Regarding the number of probationers leaving recently. To inquiries made we find that two. or three have found it necessary to retire owing to the work being of a nature that did not suit them. This experience is common throughout the Dominion, and probably the proportion in Wellington Hos-' pital is less than in other places.]