CHRISTMAS ESCAPADE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 1210, 7 January 1925, Page 7

CHRISTMAS ESCAPADE

HOSPITAL INCIDENT. NURSES JOIN IN GAIETY. The members of the Cook Hospital nursing staff at Gisborne now wear a very mournful countenance, Says an exchange paper. Sisters, nurses and probationers walk around quietly, Sedately, glancing neither to the right nor to the left, They are suffering from shock, not the shock Usually associated with .hospital work, but Christ' mas shock, and to several of the staff painful recollections will be associated with Christmas of 1924. The trouble arose out of a breach tf the regulations. A bevy of the staff came off duty, so it is whispered, for none dare speak aloud on the subject, at 10 o'clock on Christmas Eve, and were given leave for two hours, Until midnight. The tired nurses and pro- | bationers could see from their height Jon the hill the bright lights of the town below, could hear the music of the bands, and the occasional burst of fireworks and bofhbs. It Was Christmas Eve in town, and there they were shut off from the natural gaieties of youth, on the one great night of the year. After cogitating on the gloominess of life in a hospital on Christmas Eve, a party of nurses and probationers, it is said, left the institution for town, fully intending, it is asserted, to return at the midnight hour. At 11 o'clock, how* ever, the town was still gay and goodhumoured crowds were still walking the streets and the sidewalks. The Cook Hospital unofficial party separated, and , the girls enjoyed themselves with par- i ties of friends. The minutes sped on : all too quickly, and with dismay each girl realised inwardly that she had j broken the regulations in regard to i hours* In parties of twos and threes, • it is said, they went hurriedly back to I the institution, putting in an appear- j anco at intervals between midnight and 2 a.m.

The night official eyed each offender severely and, as in duty bound, reported the matter to the matron. InI cidentally, So it is said, some of the nurses told how the motor car had broken ddwn on the way hotno and had delayed them considerably, but the cold eye of officialdom stopped any detailed account of this aspect of tho case. The next scene was the appearance of four members of the board. The case was discussed at length, and, ao it is said, the following drastic punishments were awarded:— Three nurses were severely reprimanded, and all leave for some considerable time was cut off. Two probationers were dismissed. Two nurses were to have their names forwarded to the Government with _ a recommendation that they bo dismissed. Thus was the dignity of the institution upheld, but surely justice was not tempered with mercy 1 The affair has caused considerable talk and adverse comment has been made by numerous people on the drastic punishment meted out to what after all was a mere escapade and, occurring as it did, on Christmas Eve, could have been met with a severe reprimand. None will uphold the breaking of regulations so essential to the welfare of the institution, but it is held that surely on such on occasion ns that under notice a reprimand and the cancellation of leave would have effected its purpose, just as well as the punishment dealt out to the girls.