TRAINING OF NURSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20597, 23 June 1930, Page 11

TRAINING OF NURSES.

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS*

RECIPROCITY NOT IN DANGER. ASSURANCE BY MINISTER. '.An assurance that the proposed amendment of the Nurses and Midlives Registration Act would not, if passed into law, endanger the system of reciprocity between New Zealand and Great Britain in the registration of nurses was given by tho Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. Staliworthy, on Saturday. The Minister said that a draft bill had been prepared but, as the Cabinet had not yet completed its legislative programme, he was unable to say definitely whether the bill would be introduced during the coming session. Should the bill be proceeded with, it would be seen that scope of training, standard of examination, State examination and registration, and the question of reciprocity with Great Britain were all specifically safeguarded. These were major considerations about which the Trained Nurses' Association was fully justified in being very jealous. The Act, as it was proposed to be amended, would not "approve" of any privato hospital as a training centre. It would simply remove the present statutory bar and so enable private hospitals to apply to the Nurses and Midwives Registration Board for such recognition. The board would consider each case on its merits. There was at present no private hospital in the Dominion which would be able to secure the approval of the board as a training centre. But there were some voluntary organisations which were willing to spend quite large sums of money to fit their hospitals for consideration in the event of the law being amended. The Minister pointed out that such a development would to some extent relieve the burden resting on the public hospitals, and through them, the taxpayers. Mr. Staliworthy said that under the existing law what seemed to be an extraordinary position had arisen, involving the elementary principles of justice. A number of one-doctor country hospitals, approved as training centres, did not reach the standard of some of the larger private institutions. If in Auckland a private hospital twice the size of the public hospital were established, financed and conducted by the leading physicians and surgeons of the city, it would not be competent for that institution, notwithstanding the public service it was rendering, to be accepted as a training centre lor nurses. The Minister mentioned, as a further anomaly, that a girl could go to Australia, train in a private hospital in Sydney, return to the Dominion and, by virtue of the certificate won in the private hospital in Sydney, obtain admission to the New Zealand register. This had occurred in a number of instances.