EIGHT HOURS DAY FOR HOSPITAL NURSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10427, 27 April 1897, Page 6

EIGHT HOURS DAY FOR HOSPITAL NURSES.

REPORT OF THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT.

At the meeting of the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday afternoon, the consideration of the Medical Superintendent's report on the proposal to introduce the eight-hour system into the Hospital was provided for on the order paper. However, owing to the lateness of tht hour when this business was called upon, and the facb that several members had left, the question was deferred for a month. Cr. Baldwin's report is as follows :—

In accordance with the resolution pasted by the Board on Maroh 29,1 have the honour " to furnish a report as to the practicability of reorganising the nursing staff with the view of shortening the hours of attendance of the nurses iu the wards; the method such a change would be worked under. The scheme to show the probable cost of such a change as compared with the cost of the present system in the several grades" (vide resolution) :-As at the meeting there was some discussion as to the adoption of an eight hours' system, I take that first. This system would require it staff of forty-live mines for the wards; there would also be required a night charge nurse, and three other nurses to make provision for special cases {c.y,, diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc.), and to serve as relief nurses incases of holidays,or sickness. The male nurse would expect to be put on the same footing, so it would be necessary to provide auother male attendant. As to cost: Of the extra nursed required seven would be certificated, and tbeir pay at the present rate would be at the rate of £40 a year, £280 in all; the night charge nurse should rank as a charge nurse and be paid at the same rate, viz., £45 a year; until we have more senior nurses of our own training the three relief nurses would be got from outside as required, at £2 'U a week, or trained nurses would be required to bo secured at the salary of £40 a year, engagement to terminate when our ewn nurses were able to take their places. The male attendant's salary would be £60 a year, the rate now paid. The salaries of the other nurses required would range from £5 to £25 a year, according to their period of training. These six would be taken on as probationers, ao that the extra cost iu their case wouM be 130 first year, £120 second year, and £150 third year. By arranging one nurse's time iu each ward, so that her turn of duty was split up into two portions, a saving of seven nurses could be effected. An addition to our present staff of four trained nurses would enable an eight hours' system to be adopted in the fever wards only, leaving tho hours of' duty in the main building as now. The same extra number would, while not shortening the home of duty, generally enable each nurse to have one evening a week off duty. This would apply to the whole nursing staff, adoption of a full eight hours' system would necessitate an addition of accommodation to the nurses' home for the extra number required at an outlay of, say, £1000, and an increase in salaries of £535 in the first year, increasing by £120 and £150 in the second and third years respectively. An adoption of the emergency nurse system in vogue in Wellington would, if it proved successful here, enable any of these schemes to he carried nut at a small extra cost—that of uniforms and meals, I enclose the regulations for your information. It will be seen that the practicability ot reorganising the nursing staff with the view of shortening the hours of attendance depends solely upon finance.