EDUCATION OF NURSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18170, 16 August 1922, Page 6

EDUCATION OF NURSES.

COMPLAINT BY EXAMINER.

QUESTION OF STANDARD.

ILLITERATE CANDIDATES.

A lack of general education shown by candidates at the annual State examinations for nurses formed, the subject of a circular letter received by the Auckland Hospital Board last evening from the Director-General of Health, Dr. T. H. A. Valintine.

The circular stated that an examiner at tho State examination last, June said: " One could not help being struck by the exceptionally illiterate and ungrammatical style of most of the candidates." The examiner also remarked that some improvement was necessary if the very high standard which the nursing profession at present held in New .'Zealand was to be maintained. Dr. Y-alin-tine asked the board to impress upon its responsible officers the necessity for applicants for training having a certificate of sixth standard qualification or an equivalent private educational standard, and the advisability of " weeding out" during the period of probation applicants who were not likely to reflect credit on the training school, or to benefit by the instruction given, on account either of their illiteracy or their personal characteristics. The chairman, Mr. W. Wallace, said the Auckland Board had always adhered to the sixth standard qualification, and if there was any laxity it was not on the part of the board, but in the standard of the examination set by the Education Department. He moved that a reply be sent to that effect, and ho added that it had been suggested a secondary course should be insisted upon, but that would debar girls whose parents could not afford to send them to a secondary school from entering the profession. Dr. C. E. Maguire, medical superintendent of the hospital, said it would be a pity to have any higher standard than the sixth, which was quite sufficient. He was well satisfied with the type of girls entering the institution. The Auckland Hospital had always had a very large percentage of nurses who gained over 75 per cent, at the State examinations, and, in fact, ho thought it had the largest percentage in New Zealand. The motion was carried.