NURSES' HOURS IN HOSPITALS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 146, 22 June 1915, Page 6

NURSES' HOURS IN HOSPITALS

A suggestion by the Otago Trained Nurses' Association is that during tho war the eight-hour nursing system in the public hospitals should not be obligatory on the authorities. The argument is that the staffs of competent nurses, reduced by the war's demand, should agree to an extension of hours, in the cause of patriotism. This advice is well-meant, but compliance with it might do more harm than good. Tho word patriotism is one of the best; it can command self-sacrifice, on or off the field of battle, bub not all tho things done, oi' recommended, in the name of patriotism axe wise or just. Unfortunately, if the word patriotic can bo attached to procedure which nine counter J-auotto pi prudiaico. or J4^_lho

principles of justice, tho opponents of impetuosity may bo dubbed " unpatriotic." It is well known that the hospital nurses are wilhng to work hard, and suffer, too, for New Zealand and the Empire, but their willingness should not be overtaxed. It will be no advantage to New Zealard or the Empire to put a breaking strain on nurses and thus compel them to be nursed instead of nursing. Patriotism can carry a brave spirit far, but there is a limit to the greatest strength of mind or body, as Swinburne wrote well in one of his melodious versions of ancient wisdom— or elevation of the platitude to poesy : Though one were strong as seven, lie, too, with Death shall dwell." Unintentionally the OKago body, which is outside the hospitals, took rather an unfair advantage in projecting, in the name of patriotism, a scheme of long arduous hours for hospital nurses, whose health may be permanently injured by such overwork. A layman may think that a day of eight hours is not formidable, but it is a day of eight hours, seven days a week, Sundays and public holidays alike, on and on, at high pressure—and "it is the pace that kills." For example, during eight hours in tbo Wellington Public Hospital a nurse may do much more and have much more tiling tasks than another nurse would have in a ten-hour shift in another hospital. Probably, if the Otago Trained Nurses' Association sent delegates to witness the strenuous eight-hour day (seven days a week) in Wellington the suggestion about an extension of duty would be either withdrawn or modified. There are also the patients to be borne in mind— and no doubt they feel that they are entitled to first consideration. People whose lives are at stake are not eager to have -the nurses' efficiency impaired by overwork.