SURPLUS OF NURSES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 81, 30 December 1931, Page 8

SURPLUS OF NURSES

Department’s Problem TOO MANY TRAINING Need for Reduction A surplus of trained nurses In New Zealand, which is giving rise to unemployment, is causing concern to the Health Department. Large numbers pass through the hospitals annually, and the result is that it is becoming increasingly hard to place those qualifying, just as it is proving more difficult to find permanent work for those completing courses at the teachers’ training colleges.

It is likely that a definite move will have to be made to reduce the number of nurses undergoing training, for it is acknowledged that far more are being trained at present than can be absorbed in a country of the size of New Zealand. In addition, the effects of the depression overseas have reacted upon the nursing profession, for positions In other countries are rapidly becoming fewer. Foreign travel and experience have frequently been undertaken by New Zealand nurse?, but chances of finding work abroad are now slight.

Reference to this problem is made in the annual report of Miss J. Bicknell on the eve of her retirement from the position of director of the Division of Nursing. She says that it would appear that- in future it might become necessary for hospital boards to consider employing a larger proportion of trained staff, as a way out of the difficulty. “The cost of buildings could be materially reduced, for a proportion of the trained staff could live out and attend daily for the specified hours of duty, as do women in other walks of life,” Miss Bicknell says. ‘‘With a number of girls undergoing training the case is entirely different. They must for their own protection be under supervision and guidance until they have attained a measure of self-relit ance and stability. “At the present moment the United. States is suffering from a surplus of trained nurses, and an Investigation is being carried out In order to find some means of overcoming the difficulty and of Improving the standard, and distribution of nursing services.! It Is there suggested that a larger proportion of trained nurses would result in more skilled nursing of the; sick and more efficient training of the, pupil. An inquiry of somewhat siml-’ lar nature is being held in England, so It will be seen that the question) is a very real one.” ,