Hospital Nurses’ Status

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 301, 16 September 1936, Page 11

Hospital Nurses’ Status

Sir, —The following advertisement has appeared in a number of daily papers during the past day or so: Applications are invited for the position of (a) Female cook at the hospital, wages £l/14/per week, live in. (b) Staff nurse at the hospital; salary £9O per annum; uniform provided. At first glance what strikes one most forcibly in this advertisement is the order of precedence, which is on a par with the reply from one guard of a mixed train in England to that of the other who inquired of what his cargo consisted and received the reply. ‘Only fish and actors.”

Seriously though, 1 think it is a standing disgrace to the community and New Zealand in general that any woman who has to give at least three years of training to qualify as a registered nurse, and having acquired professional status, has to undertake the full responsibilities of life and death of a patient during the absence of the medical man, should be called upon to work for such an inadequate wage. Though very cleverly hidden, the difference between the wages of the cook and the “staff nurse” (which means a nurse who has at least had some hospital experience, and not a fledgling) is exactly £l/12/- per annum, or roughly 8 pence a week more for the professional qualifications. I cannot speak personally of public institutions or hospitals . where nurses are employed, as their administration, organisation, working hours, technique, and methods of pay change so rapidly and frequently that it would require an Achilles to keep pace with them and a Solomon to decipher them. This much I do know, that in private hospitals much the same standard of pay operates. I have been credibly informed by sisters (registered nurses) and matrons of private hospitals that the maximum amount of pay that a sister can hope for irrespective of experience is £2 a week. During rush periods and emergencies these unfortunate people have to work as many as'l4 hours a day. and the average rate is not less than 91 to 10 hours daily. This for six days a week for £2. Ye gods! Is this fair or reasonable? The theatre (operation) sister is on call for 24 hours every day for six days a week, and cannot be out of touch with the hospital for more than one hour at a time in case she is needed. In these days when one hears so much of a “standard living wage” and “limitation of working hours,” why, oh why, are the poor nurses forgotten? Echo answers. Why? Perhaps it is because their mission in life is to help and comfort suffering humanity, but that indeed is poor recompense. Won’t someone take up the cudgels on behalf of these unfortunate "sisters”? —I am, etc., SURGEON. Wellington, September 15.