HOSPITAL NURSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22579, 18 November 1936, Page 16

HOSPITAL NURSES

SHORTAGE ALLEGED CRITICISM OF STATEMENT WITHDRAWAL BY MEMBER The action of Mrs. M. M. Dreaver in stating through the newspapers that there was a shortage of 50 nurses on the staff of the Auckland Hospital was severely criticised by the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, the Hew \V. (J. Wood, and several members, at a meeting of tho board yesterday. Criticism was also expressed in regard to other parts of Mrs. Dreaver's published statement, which was made in reference to two motions which she intended to submit to the board, and which dealt with nurses' wages and a 40-hour w?ek for all employees. A statement had been made that the hospital staff was 50 nurses short, said .Mr. Wood. Mrs. Dreaver had niado this statement repeatedly, but it was not true, and had not been true at any time since she had been on the board. But she had persisted in making tho statement, and it had been published by the press of tho city and probably throughout the country. "We are not 50 nurses short and never have been —wo arc not short in the nursing staff at all," said Mr. Wood. The board had been steadily increasing its nursing staff and had brought it up to be equal to that of any other hospital. The chairman said the board had one nurse to two patients, which was the ratio in the Wellington and Waikato hospitals. Last year the total number of the nursing staff was 331. This year it was 355. Reference to a statement by Mrs. Dreaver that if the monetary reward of the nursing profession was improved the board would get a desirable class of girl that they had never been able to get before was also made by the chairman. ''l regard that as an exceedingly reprehensible statement," said Mr. Wood. "It has been resented bitterly throughout the services of the institution. There is an insinuation that, owing to our paying the present wages, we have been allowing an inferior type of nurse to join the stall. 1 have never heard or seen anything more offensive. 1 think it is an insult to every girl in the institution and those who have gone through it." Mrs. Dreaver: 1 still state, and will state until tho position is rectified, that wo are still short of nurses. The lady superintendent of the nursing staff. Miss K. M. Nut.soy, said the nursing staff was 31 in excess of le-

quirements. The chairman moved that the board should express its regret that Mrs. 1 heaver had made statements through the press contrary to fact. Mrs. Dreaver agreed to withdraw her statement about the shortage of nurses, however, and the question was dropped. Mrs. Dreaver's two motions in recard to placing the hospital stair on a 40-hour week and increasing the salaries of the nurses were deferred until the next meeting.