ST. HELENS HOSPITAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13783, 23 June 1908, Page 6

ST. HELENS HOSPITAL.

DEPUTATION TO Mil. FOLDB.

VIEWS OF MEDICAL MEN."

THE TRAINING OF NURSES.

A pepctatios ■waited upon the Hon, {*> FowWe. Minister for Public Health. ; yesterday morning, in connection with Various questions relating to St. Helen* Hosmtal. The deputation uoniMstad of Mr. A. tvidd. M,l'.,'u!!d Drs. Mackelfar and Bedford.

In introducing the deputation, .Mr". Kkhi said if was contended lilt ; '- Helens' was not fulfilling what it' was intended to. do; It. trained six to eight nurses a year, but that number was not sufficient to meet requirements in that respect., and those who had passed through St. Helens were not calculated to take tip the clasa of work amongst the poorer people. Dr. Bedford said that they had looked forward with a great- deal of hope to the establishment of St. Helens! Hospital, be* cause they were aware that the wives of the poor were suffering from the fact that too often they had not the services of skilful nurses'. It was their hope, when the hospital started, that mimes would be trained to work amongst the poorer people in the community:—people who did not wish to be pauperised by being made to depend upon ingenious modification of charitable aid these people were prepared to pay for a nurse. He was willing to admit that a high type of nurse was being trained by the St. Helens Hospital, but while they were being trained women were suffering for the want of nurses, infants were Heing stillborn, or had to go through life wills impaired vision, and medical men felt disappointment that something more had not been done by St. Helens Hospital to supply nurses who, by their knowledge, would he able to do more for the women of this class.

Dr. Mackellar said that under the old .system there were, midwives who attended to tit© women of the poorer classes, in litany cases with considerable skill. 'I he nurses now being tinned out from St, Helens were fairly young, fairly educated, and he hoped fairly ambitious. Such nursed were scarcely likely to spend their time musing the wives, of the poorer people, with all its disadvantages, when they might be more comfortable amongst the better-off people.

Mr. Kidd remarked that the Government should lake into consideration the desirableness ot reducing the scale of charges, which were now prohibitive in a great many cases. The trained muses going from hospitals had, he understood, to pay £10 10s. while a probationer going to St. ; Helens to be wholly trained there had to pay £21, thus the fees were out of all proportion to what could be paid by the class of inline required. It .was quite certain that the. nurses being 'educated there did not find their way to the field for the interests of which tlie institution was founded.

The Minister, in reply, said ho was only anxious that the very best that could be done should be done 'for the training and equipment of midwives. He was very glad also of the opportunity they gave him of removing some very serious misapprehensions that appeared to exist in the public mind regarding St. Helens and its function. In the first place it would appear, from something published in the press, as if the establishment of St. Helens had shut the door on the methods of training of Tuidwivea I that existed previously to the establishment of the institution. This was hardly true. It was a. fact that in some of the larger hospitals more or less spasmodic efforts were made by the honorary staff to give lectures to some of the'nurses on midwifery, but they never had, in any of those institutions, the number of patients available to give anything like a practical training in midwifery". So that the establishment of St, Helens, instead of shutting any door, was an addition to existing opportunities for acquiring skill in the profession of midwifery. ,It seemed to be an impression that the' Government legislation,;,prevented itlie people who bad the training,that was* in vogue- before- St. Helens whs established, and who acted as "monthly'- ■''nurses, frOm carrying .coir their profession. . ; That-'was', , not so. " They '. were free to' obtain the same training as they got'before St,' Helens was' started, and' it was open to them to carry on their business under the superintendence of a doctor. The only restriction the law imposed .was the undertaking of a case on their own responsibility where a medical man was available. Of course; no law j would prevent one. woman assisting another I if there was rid doctor available. .' i

In connection with the training at St. Helens,, continued the Minister, it had to be borne in mind that what was .specifically required by the Department was the evidence of practical training, in addition to theoretical. A nurse attending canes under four or rive doctors would see a variety of surgical methods, but she stood and looked on at the doctor's work, and at St. Helens the probationer operated herself, under the supervision and instruction of the matron and other trained nurses. What ho wished to emphasise was that the certificate carried with it authority for the midwife to undertake a case by herself without the assistance of a medical man at all. Any certificate that, conferred authority for that must be backed by very complete evidence of both practical and theoretical training. There was nothing in the law now."to prevent those who were only partially -trained undertaking cases under the supervision,of a medical man. With reference to the question of lectures at tit. . Helens, it was found that the system worked unsatisfactorily. The Government was perfectly willing to provide the lectures,' apart, from St. Helens, and to assist midwives, as far as possible, in becoming efficient in their profession, but the admission of them to lectures at. St. Helens, and letting them go without the Government being able to know whether they had sufficient practical training, and yet crivirig them a. practical certificate, thai of having attended at St. Helens lectures, was- altogether a different matter. There "ere some people carrying on lyingin homer-, who had simply beer, admitted because of having practised for a lung time. If women had been under tin- tuition of a trained midwifei capable of -jiving the necessary instruction, and they had had a sufficient number of eases, and lien availed themselves of the lectures the Government wa;; willing to provide, he saw no objection then to their being admit fed to an examination and receiving certificates, but, apart from that, the best way to get hold of thr; old midwife class wax be means of those special lectures that the Government had already offered to provide, and was willing to provide in all the centres of the Dominion, to as to make them as efficient as possible, for, after all. it was those people, under the superintendence of the family doctor, who would have to da the nursing amongst the poor. One of the principal things the late Mr. Heddoti had in view was the training of midwives who would be able to go to the hick blocks, and in such cases it was absolutely essential that they should have that training that would en- | able them to undertake cases without the i supervision of a doctor, and if the Govern- ! merit was to alter the standard for the cer- I tificate it would largely defeat the- object, j by admitting to the register those who had not the necessary qualifications to he | entrusted with a case in the absence of a i medical man. ... . j