TRAINING OF NURSES

Southland Times, Issue 24055, 20 February 1940, Page 3

TRAINING OF NURSES

To The Editor Sir,—l was interested in the report of the matron of the Southland hospitals about the training of nurses and the fears of a shortage of trained nurses. I think that the shortage can be blamed on the regulations which govern the entry of nurses into a training school. To enter such a school, a girl, I understand, must have a high school education. This is probably in some ways a good move, but does the fact of a girl having two or three years’ post-primary education make her a better nurse? I doubt this. From my observations I should say that the success of the training depends upon thu character of the trainee. How many of the matrons of today and the older trained nurses have had a secondary education?

The reply to this argument might be that the hospital authorities have no means of assessing whether a girl with a primary education is able to cope successfully with the lectures and nurses’ examinations. This difficulty can soon be overcome. The hospital authorities have no qualms about engaging girls of primary education for the positions of nurse aids. Would it not be right and fair, where these nurse aids have proved themselves efficient and capable of undergoing training, to give them this privilege, even though they have not had secondary education? Surely the hospital authorities are competent to decide which of their nurse aids can undergo training. I think it is only fair that where a nurse aid has proved herself efficient, and is ambitious to advance in the profession, that she should be given a chance.

It is unsound in principle to try to divide the nursing profession into two classes: those who have undergone training at a base hospital and those who undergo a training as a nurse aid. As a nurse aid the ambitious young woman has no avenue of promotion.— Yours, etc., INTERESTED. February 17, 1940.