THE HOSPITAL NURSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10429, 29 April 1897, Page 6

THE HOSPITAL NURSES.

Miss Sqdirr, the matron at the Hospital, has furnished the following report to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board re nurses' hours i—

Having been asked for an opinion as to the desirability of a change of hours for the iiuses in the wards, 1 beu to reply first by giving the time that each nurse spends in the wards at the present time, viz, 12 lionn on every alternate day (from those 12 hours time for luncheon and tea has to be deducted), on each alternate day eight hours and on «»ch alternate Sunday six hours. Then «g;ain the majority of our Hospital wards are much smaller than most hospital wards, containing ouly 16 beds (our fever wards are the exception, containing 20 beds each), whereas most hospitals have wards of 24, 28, 30, and 36 beds. In every way there is leas work for the nures than in most hospitals. There is one busy eieht hours, from four a.in to 12 noon, which is shared by day and night nurses, after that in the afternoon there is comparatively nothing to do. The nurses may be often found reading or writing, more especially on the three visiting days, wheu nothing else can be done. In my opinion a uniform eight hours is not at all necessary, or in the interests of the patients desirable. Possibly an eight hours' hay all round would be very nice, but that does not make it practicable or wjowrjr. What I would very much like the Board to see their way to do, instead of having a third more nurses, which the eight hours system would entail, is to have an extr* emergency staff of four nurses fully trained, and capable of taking any duty at a moment's notice, these nurses in ordinary times to be employed in Riving a half-day each week instead of alternate weeks to the senior nurses, and in the busy fever season to take a special eight hours duty in the fever wards during the busv hours. This would practically give an eight honrs duty to the nurses in those wards, and here alone does it teem at all necessary to me to shorten the hours.