SHORTAGE OF NURSES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 119, 15 February 1944, Page 6

SHORTAGE OF NURSES

Measures For Control Of Available Personnel In spite of the fact that more nurses were being trained at present in > Zealand tFian at any. other time m the history of the Dominion, there was still an alarming shortage of staff in many hospitals, particularly of registered nurses in the smaller country hospitals, stated the “New Zealand Nursing Journal” in a recent issue. The formation of the Civil Nursing Reserve a year a=o had resulted in a measure of relief py keeping fluid a certain number of registered nurses and voluntary aids jvho were allotted to hospitals to help them over difficult periods. . , The first step through legislation to safeguard hospital staffing during the war period resulted m nurses, together with all hospital personnel, being lln »“ le to leave their employment without consent of the district manpower officers. So far, however, there was' no effective control over nurses who had been released from their positions in order to take further training, and thcr ® ,'Y e 7 n ii O w’ stances on record of several uho : follow ing the completion of such training, had avoided full time employment over a period of months. It was obvious that the time had arrived when recognized, procedure under the emergency regulations must be laid down in order to evolve a practical scheme. Representatives of the Registered Nurses' Association met the Director of Nursing in conference with omcers of the National Service Department, and as a result, instructions were issued to district manpower officers. The position is now that all . nurses who complete any form of training and are about to leave their training schools, will be allowed one month in which to find a position for themselves in either a public or private hospital, or in the service of the Health Department or in the Plunket nursing service. When they do find employment they must produce a certificate notifying the maniwwer authorities, the certificate having to be supplied by the appropriate authority concerned. If at the end of the month such certificate is not produced the nurse be directed into the Civil Nursing Reserve. ' It is not deemed advisable to direct nurses into private hospitals because fit present these institutions have no standard salary scale, or superannuation but it is realized they also must be staffed. Unless physically unfit to join the reserve, a nurse will not be permitted to take up private nursing till such time, as the present shortage in hospital nursing ■staff is overcome. In the.case of a nurse not regularly practising her profession, it has been arranged that the manpower officer will investigate each such case, and if there is sufficient reason, he will direct the nurses into the Civil Nursing Reserve. Nurses marrying may be released from duty under the following circumstances: A nurse marrying a soldier from overseas; a nurse marrying.. a . person in whose business or work she is required to assist, for example, as a farmers wife; a nurse whose home after marriage is in a locality where there is no nursing work available within daily reach.