THE BOGUS NURSE.

New Zealand Herald, 29 June 1914, Page 9

THE BOGUS NURSE.

LEGISLATION PROPOSED. [nioM our own correspondent.] London, May 15. In a letter to the press in support *of Dr. Chappie's Bill for the compulsory registration of nurses, Sir Victor Horsley, the eminent surgeon, says State registration is not a question of simply improving tho position of nurses, it is actually the only means by which adequate nursing can b<J obtained for the sick poor. There is at present, he says, a very great dearth of nurses, and it lias been getting worse for a dozen years. Twelve years ago Mr. Walter Long, as President of the Local Government Board, was moved to sot np an inquiry into the dearth of nurses. That report condemned the nursing of the sick poor by untrained persons, yet, Sir Victor says, " ibis scandal is even more marked at present, and tho notorious evil of so-caiJed assistant nurses is being revived, although tho com-1 mittee recommended its abolition. Mr. Long's committee unanimously declared " that it is desirable that a register of nurses should be kept by a central authority appointed by the State," Sir Victor Horsley declares that we are back again " at the position which Florence Nightingale condemned, namely, that for poor persons, especially the rural poor, anything can be offored." Tho following names have been inscribed as supporters on the back of Dr. Chappie's measure —Dr. Addison, Mr. Alden, Mr Bryco, Mr. D. Millar, Mr. Scott Dickson, Mr. Remnant, Sir G. Younger, Mr, Hamsay Macdonald, and Mr. Field. All the purtiea are represented. Outside Parliament it is said to have tho support of 40,000 doctors and nurses, comprised in tho British Medical Association, the Matrons' Council of Great Britain and Ireland, the Royal British Nurses' Association, the Society for the State Registration of Trained Nurses, the Fevor Nurses' Association, tho Association fer the Promotion of the Registration of Nurses in Scotland, the Scottish Nurses' Association, and the Irish Nurses' AssociationA strong Central Committed, representing these bodies, with Lord Ampthill as chairman, baa been set up. Registration of nurses is now compulsory in Now Zealand, 38 of the States of the United States, Australia, South Africa, the Bombay Presidency, Ontario and Manitoba, and Belgium,