Nurses’ Pay and Conditions

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1946, Page 3

Nurses’ Pay and Conditions

[TO TUB EDITOR.] Sir, —I would like to answer a letter _ written by “Parent of Nurse” which appeared in your paper on Saturday last. His solution to the problem of the nursing shortage shows that he has little' knowledge of the position, which is so serious that it seems to me it would be wise to give publicity to a few of the facts. Your correspondent urges that a “living wage” should be paid. An absolutely untrained entrant into hospital is paid £75 a year, in addition to full board and uniform. That is, she has £75 a year with which to provide herself with shoes and stockings, outdoor clothes, and amusements. It is not a fortune, but it is definitely a living wage. If she were employed in a position where she had to find board, it would cost her at least 30/- a week, and in addition she would have to find travelling expenses to and from her work —a very considerable item in the larger centres. Incidentally, she would also have to find travelling time outside her working hours. There are not ’many positions, save nursing, where accommodation is found on the job. The commencing salary-, then, is equivalent to £3 or £3/10/- per week (varying according to the board and travelling expenses), which is good pay for an untrained apprentice to a profession. The salary increases with knowledge and experience during the years of training, with a decided increase once knowledge and experience qualify her for a sister’s (or outside equivalent) position. There is a very prevalent, but very much mistaken idea that the student nurse represents “cheap labour” for hospital boards. Actually, by the time she is provided with salary, board and lodging, tuition, a sufficiently large trained staff to oversee her work, and domestic service in the nurses’ home, etc., it is estimated that the student nurse costs the country £5/5/- a week. I quote the Minister of Health. The Health Department does think of these things. The great majority of nurses are well satisfied with their salaries and their conditions. If they are not they have a logical and effective place where they can lodge their grievances —their own association, which has had an enormous influence in altering nursing conditions _ from “those which existed in the time 01. Florence Nightingale” and which no one even gets a chance to tolerate to-day. The shortage of nurses is due to three main reasons:— 1. Competition with a far wider choice of careers for women than obtained a few years ago. 2. The fact that we are now meeting with, the results of the post-war depression of about 20 years ago, when babies simply were not born to be nurses or anything else. Any school-teacher will tell you of the effect on the school rolls a lew yeais back 3. New Zealand is employing far more nurses than it ever did. In 1940 there were 1800 jrurses in our training schools; m 1945, 3420. Trained nurses over the same Period increased from 650 to 1100. After all, not a shortage so much as a tremendous increase in the job.—Yours, etc ” TRAINED NURSE. Greymouth, September 18.