BAN ON TRAVEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23626, 9 April 1940, Page 6

BAN ON TRAVEL

NEW ZEALAND NURSES PREVENTING EXODUS DOMINION'S WAR NEEDS WORSE SHORTAGE FEARED Registered nurses 1 arc not being granted permits to travel outside New Zealand unless it is shown that there are grave personal reasons for their doing so, according to a memorandum received by the Auckland Hospital Board last night from Miss M. I. Lambie, director of the division of nursing of the Health Department. This action was taken by the Government on account of the 'fact that with nurses now being required for military purposes overseas, the existing shortage in the Dominion was liable to be accentuated. Miss Lambie stated that in the past it bad been common for 100 to 150 nurses to leave New Zealand each year, and it was hoped that the new provision would improve the situation. With the addition to the register of approximately 400 nurses qualifying each year, a satisfactory position should be maintained. Married Nurses The department had also suggested to hospital boards that during the war period registered nurses who had married, but whose husbands were away on active service should be employed, if necessary 011 a living-out basis. Nurses in training, who had married and whose husbands had left New Zealand, should be encouraged to return and complete their training, as their profession might bo of definite use to them in the future. Reference to amendments in the Nurses and Midwivos' Registration Act was made by Miss Lambie. She explained that mental hospitals were to be graded as B grade training schools, and a scheme had fyjen inaugurated for the training of nursing aids, which would assist to bridge the gap between the times a girl left school and entered a hospital for general graining and also provide a training for girls who did not possess the general education necessary to undertake the usual course. Training of Men Provision was made in the amended Act for the training of male nurses. However, it was questionable whether it would be necessary to proceed with this scheme, as many men would now he trained in the Army Medical Corps for this purpose.