LEAVE FOR NURSES

Northern Advocate, 15 July 1925, Page 3

LEAVE FOR NURSES

CONSIDERED INADEQUATE,

Some time ago Mr W. Jones raised the question at the Whangarei Hospital Board of the amount of leave nurses obtained, with special reference to the night nurses. The general principle was <ihat as far as possible all nurses should^have sne day off in seven. The night nurses..were on duty every night for six weeks and Mr Jones therefore contended that they were entitled to six days' holiday, he maintained that three days' leave was all that they enjoyed. Subsequently it was ascertained that the three days were not clear. The subject was V diseussed again at Monday's meeting of the Board, Snd Sister Ruff, acting matron, stated the position. She said that the day nurgjes were supposed to get one day off -a Week, but .when there,, were eases of Sickness the staff or of holidays, Ijiey often did not get ;tliem. ' She ha« known of 'day nnrsesi had; worked! fpr a lribnth and as fatuteh as six weekaf Without getting a holiday. After ex-j pjlainmg the position iii regard to thej I njight ."nurses, Sister Rwff said Ithat the i only solution could see would be ai» increase in the staff. She was not anxious to get that, however, as thero 'was not much accommodation to spare "at the Nurses' Home. Asked by Mr J. A. S| MacKay whether there were not enough rooms for all the nurses, Sister Ruff replied that there was one room and the ironing room yet to spare, but that some of thi« rooms were not furnished and beds in others had been borrowed from the hospital.

A long discussion ensued, and Mr Jones expressed himself in favour of the night sister allowed one night a week off, aS she was engaged on night cluty permanently. What he coulf! not understand was why the Board should cavil at giving the night nurses a fourth day off in six weeks. He had seen the position for himself and he had therefore brought the matter forward.

To Mr J. A. S. MacKay it appeared absurd that night nurses should get only three days off in six weeks whereas day nurses got six, but it shown that the night nurses' duties were less onerous.

Mr MacKay moved that, as tV rrangements had been drawn up by experts prior to the time the actingmatron took up her duty, the existing arrangement be not interfered with meanwhile. lie was ofopinion that the whole subject should be adjourned until the matron returned.

Mr Jones remarked that the policy of the Board was that nurses should be employed for six days a week. Sister Huff had said that some of the night nurses preferred three days off at one time, but there were others who might not. He drew attention to the fac.t that the Board was faced with the need for two extra nurses for the T.B. shelter, yet at the present time day nurses were getting one day off in eight instead of one in six, and that was only when things were working smoothly. When the mntroii returned Tip intended to move, if he were o. member of the Board, in the direction he ha' 1 irdi(",ted. The actincr-niatron wn« 'Vhr t-h n best she could with the stnff she hid. Statistics showed that the hospital was

understaffed compared with others,-and the average number of patients daily occupying the beds was increasing. IJe wished that the night nurses should get the full three days off meanwhile instead of two, which he contended was all they were actually granted. ' The chairman said he thought that if •the acting-matron were asked to arrange to give an extra day it would add to the difficulty. In any case the night nurses of one period became the : day nurses of the next. . Finally Mr J. A. S. MacKay moved that the existing arrangement be continued until the matron returned avM that she be then recommended to JH into the question and if make a revision, and also that the act-ing-matron be recommended to grant an extra day off where possible. Seconding the motion, the chairman "said that the position was simply that, the principle was to give nurses one day off a weelt, but the acting-matron simply could not do it. The amendment Was carded, •Messrs .Tones, i. N. t. McKjiy .arid Simpson voting against it. , . . \. ! ■