SUPPLY OF NURSES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16159, 8 February 1913, Page 2

SUPPLY OF NURSES.

tfHE SHORTAGE DISAPPEARING.

REASSURING FIGURES. [From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, February 7.

A shortage of nurses has been for some years the anxiety of doctors and hospital authorities in tho dominion, but a much more satisfactory position has now been reached. The ideal proportion of nurses, as. indicated by the report of the Public Health and Hospitals Department, is one nurse to every one thousand inhabitants. The actual, to-day is as follows: Trained and registered nurses 1326, untrained midwives 685 and trained mid wives 492. '. l ■

To show how rapidly the demand for trained midwives has been met, the total for 1907 was 102. On March 31, 1912, the number was 416, and no fewer than 77 more were added last year ; 55 of whom were trained in the dominion at the St Helens Hospitals, the Townley Maternity Home (Gisborne), the Alexandra Homo (Christchurch), and the Forth Street Home (Dunedin). Some of the New Zealand candidates achieved the distinction of earning 100 per cent of the possible marks, both in theoretical and practical work, at the recent examinations. Thus the supply of nurses is steadily, improving, and the scarcity which once caused real anxiety is now disappearing. "There has'been, a considerable influx of nurses from the United Kingdom, and wo do not find the same difficulty in filling hospital appointments now," explained the InspectorGeneral of Hospitals to a representative of the " Lyttelton Times." "As regards midwives, though, we have been short, and .we .feared .that, when the Midwives Act came into force we could not get sufficient trained women to take the place of the old unregistered midwives. There •is now not much risk of a shortage, and we admitted fifty-seven trained midwives recently.