NURSES’ HEALTH

Evening Star, Issue 23128, 30 November 1938, Page 15

NURSES’ HEALTH

MOVE TO EASE BURDEN OF WORK HEW SYSTEM OF TRAINING “It lias boon realised for a long time that it is hardly fair to expect nurses to do a full day’s ward duty and then study or attend lectures,” said the superintendent of the Wellington Public Hospital, Dr A. R. Thorne, referring to a recent suggestion from Southland that the reason why so many nurses broke down in health was that they had to study as well as work in the wards.

The Wellington Board, Dr Thorne said, had already decided that the block system would be introduced when a sufficient number of nurses was available. Under this system trainee nurses did not attend lectures throughout the year concurrently with their ward work. Instead sections of the year were devoted entirely to intensive study and other sections to practical work in the wards. At a recent meeting of the hoard it was stated that if 100 additional nurses could he obtained it would be possible to put the 40-hour week into operation within three or six months.

Dr Thorne said that with the block system of training, shorter hours, and better accommodation and recreational facilities at the nurses’ home an improvement in the general standard of the nurses’ health could be expected. In the meantime the amount of sickness among nurses in Wellington was no greater than the average in other hospitals where similar conditions prevailed. “ It must be remembered,” said Dr Thorne, “ that the ago at which a nurse begins duty is one at which in all walks of life latent weaknesses, such as tuberculosis, may show up.”