AMERICAN NURSING FEES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 14

AMERICAN NURSING FEES

A correspondent of the Melbourne "Loader" writes on the subject of nursing fees in America as follows:— I was talking with an Australian nurse who had just, returned from a trip to America with another nurse. When .they reached New York they decided it was high time to look for work. ' They had letters of introduction to several doctors, and were fortunate in securing work on the first day of application..... The nurse I was speaking to went as a "night special" to a patient in one of New York's most luxurious hospitals. She says that those private hospitals aro designed for the super rich. Patients never take a single room, but engage a suite comprising sitting-room, bedroom, and private bathroom. They are furnished richly, in exquisite taste. They pay from ten guineas a day. for a suite. All patients, whether they aro seriously ill or not, are "specialised," that is, have special nurses who attend to them only. If they are seriously ill they have four nurses. This nurse's patient was a young and attractive daughter of immensely rich parents. She was tired out. with a season of social activities, and had come to the hospital for a rest. Quito often she went off to bridge parties or to theatres, to which she sometimes took her night nurse. "All I had to do," the nurse said, "was to he-lp her undress when she got home, tuck her-in bed, and turn out the light. For this I received the equivalent of thirty good shillings a night. ■ I felt a positive criminal taking the money." Later,, she went, as special .-nurse to a well-known surgeon. She' attended at his rooms, and, went with him when he was doing very special operations She received eight guineas a week. "Oh, its true," she said. "They give you money if you will tako it in America.' Provided you get some good introductions and have a bit of luck', it's a great place for nurses." Slip also said that though the money is often easily earned, nurses must have good qualifications before doctoss will employ them. They are very strict about qualifications in America, though niahy people think otherwise.