PITY THE HOSPITAL NURSE.

NZ Truth, Issue 115, 31 August 1907, Page 4

PITY THE HOSPITAL NURSE.

It is sincerely to be trusted that Parliament will have brought under its notice the unfortunate position and condition of the nurses m Wellington Hospital. At the same time it Would be just as well if Parliament was stirred up to do somethine: lor the nurses m most Government institutions because, truth to tell, the Government seems to be the worst sweater m the country The nurses at the various mental asylums m the Dominion have a wretched time of it, and not very Ion?;; ago "Trutti" devoted' a little space to the Porirua Asylum where we .showed that owing to the pum Icusspilness of a matron 3G nurses had coiic md gone m little less than IK I months. Unfortunately, the nurses

of our Government concerns have no mouthpiece,, they must grin and bear indignities, the least murmur is ranked as insubordination, while any complaints made seldom, if ever, reach the proper quarter. Now. the Wellington Hospital, it would seem, is under the control of trustees, comprised of individuals as hard m the mouth as they are at heart, who simply pose as Hospital directors because it suits their vanity and allows them to loom largely m the public eye, that only sees "Charity" m big red letters, whereas those who work Charity 'have double-barrelled motives and big fat contracts is often one of the mottives. Hospital directors, the world over, won't listen to complaintsi, or if they do, they are slow to act on them. Consequently, the fact that nurses are tired , and utterly worn out m body and m mind, does not appeal to the big hearts of the Hospital trustees. They close their eyes also to the fact that the medical staff is utterly insufficient to cope with the ever increasing cases, and that the doctors themselves are worn, out, and that sooner or later there must be a radical change. The hospital doctors are slaves to duty, though they have bigger and better opportunities of making ' known their wants and getting more consideration than the nurses. It is because the nurse is overworked, is sweated, is ground down, ill-fed, bounced and bullied that "Truth" now raises a protest with, the hope that its protesting voice will reverbeTate m the chambers of Parliament, and that Members will be moved* again to force the Government to open its eyes. Everybody, sympathises' with nursesi and rightly so. In the Wellington Hospital care and devotion to patients are expected of them. That the nurses, probationers or otherwise do their duties efficiently "Truth" Ins no doubt, if it 'bad it would quickly say so. Moreover, these nurses are underpaid. They aie wretchedly overworked, they have to kow-)tow to head nurses and others. The idea of a nurse having Jto salute the head-nurse and the one next to her, before and after meals seems strange to "Truth-." Who the devil is the head-nurse, and the one or two next to her. Why should iliev sit or stand like stuffed monkeys awaiting a salute from a fasr-n-ed-out nurse who has been on duty 'all night, and who has to turn to m the day-time Is it any wonder, considering; tint these young women are so sweated, so ill-fed, and their food is v/ors? than that supplied to patients, that the nurses home is filled "with sick young women. It is a cryinjr shame that such a state of affairs should exist at all m the ; hospitals. A nurse is 1 supposed to be ever ready to attend to a patient's slightest wants ; but there are nurses m the hospital even more m need of attention than 1/he patients themselves. "Truth" hgs before dealt with this matter,, but it looks as if matters are wor^o than ever. It confirms the statement that the Government is the worst sweater m the land.