NURSES' HOURS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1912, Page 8

NURSES' HOURS.

%O THE BDITOB. Sir,— ln the controversy that has lately taken place on the subjects of the hours of the nurses in the Hospital,' I desire to call your attention to one or two matters, in the hope that a great injustice will not be done to the nurses. No doubt, considerable attention is paid to any statement made by Dr. Hardwicke Smith, especially when that statement appears to have .some support from 'the matron; but it is quite possible — and in this case seems probable — that both the superintendent and the, matron* are making a serious error, which will eventuate hi an act of injustice j to the nurses, who, unfortunately, aro unable to make their views known either through 'the press or in any other way. The proposition of Dr. Hardwicke Smith is that it the nurses have twelve hours a day they will have all the more time in which to do their work, and consequently the rush and turmoil will be less severe. I have never beard this class of argument advanced in the case of any other employment If so, the eight hours a day sysI tern is an absurdity, and we should revert to the twelve hours. Why should not the navvy in the trench oi' the labourer on the wharf have four hours more tacked on the day's employment, and be allowed a little relaxation in the amount of "stroke" that he puts into his work? This matter is of great importance, not merely to the nurses, but to a much larger body— the patients who are under their care and treatment. The fixing of the present limit of eight hours was a humanitarian step in the interests both of the patients and the nurses ; and it is to bo hoped that the public will not be induced, on the authority of the Medical Superintendent, whose statement undoubtedly is entitled to great weight, to favour so retrograde a step as the reinstatement oi the twelve hours system, which was abandoned in favour of tho eight hour. _ I venture to tay that if proper enquiries were made amongst the patients thornselves, Dr. Hardwioke Smith would be found to be entirely wrong in the impression that he has formed, that the patients a.re in favour of the longer hours. — I am, etc., J , J.P. Wellington, 30th January, 1912.