NURSING SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22612, 2 July 1935, Page 6

NURSING SERVICE

DOMINION SCHEME THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN At a meeting of the council of the Comraandery of the Order of St. John m Wellington last week, a resolution was passed approving of the organisation of a dominion nursing service of St. Jofi“> PJ the lines of the Queen Jubilee District Nurses (England), the Victorian Order of Nurses -(Canada or the Bush Nursing Service of Victoria. A. recommendation was made that the knight commander should authorise the steps necessary to its inauguration. _ Definite steps nave now been taken to institute the scheme by the appointment of an organising committee consisting of Dra W. Young, J. S. Elliott (Wellington), A. R. Falconer (Dunedin), and Mr C. J. Tunks land), and a member to be nominated by the New Zealand Trained Nurses Associate, this scheme the following principles are adopted:—(a) That the Nursing Association is essentially a co-operative movement: (b) that each centre, subject to the general rules of the central body (in New Zealand the Comraandery of the Order of St. John), manages its own affairs and the Central Council deals only with the elected local committees, i-e-, complete decentralisation; (c) that any assistance given to the centres by the Central Council is conditional on the centres having made a determined effort to help themselves: (d)_ that the nurse inspector, periodically visits the centres and meets the local committee. The Victorian Order of Nurses in Canada and the Queen’s Jubilee Nurses in England are on somewhat similar lines, each local branch being self-supporting and practically self-controlled, but being under the guidance and supervision of a central executive. GOVERNING BODY. In the case of New Zealand this central governing body would be a committee set up by the Commandery of bt. John, as is allowed by its royal charter, with members co-opted from such other organisations (if willing to serve) as the British Medical Association, the Trained Nurses’ Association, the Associated Friendly Societies, the New Zealand Hospital Boards’ Association, the New Zealand Red Cross Society, the Royal Plunket Society, the Nurse Maud Association, and the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union. Conference members would be the Director-general of Health and the directors of the Division of Nursing and of School Hygiene. This committee of the commandery with its coopted members would be termed the Central Council of the New Zealand District Nursing Guild of St. John. , District centres would be set up by the residents of any district, and would be registered by the Central Council after certain guarantees were provided and the local by-laws were approved. The rules governing the appointment of district nurses would follow the lines of those already formulated by the Health Department for the use of hospital boards. A high standard-of nursing qualification is required. , . ~ , . . By a federation of the various district .pursing organisations throughout _ New Zealand a fuller provision of district nursing service on a co-ordinated plan can be evolved, which would link up with the medical practitioner, the Hospital Board and the Health Department, and with any other organisation having the same ends in view. The bedside care of a sick person would be carried out under the direction of the family doctor, and the inspection of the patient’s family in home nursing and the laws of health would be in accordance with the teachings of the Health Department, with whose public health nursing the work would be coordinated. Close association should be expected in country districts with the Women’s Division of the Farmers Union in assisting to supervise the home nursing work of their home-helpers when sickness came to the mother of the family. Finance, as in the Victorian and Canadian system, will be on the co-opera-tive principle, with the idea of being ultimately self-supporting.