Nurses’ Training Bill

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1073, 10 September 1930, Page 11

Nurses’ Training Bill

IMPORTANT CHANGES MADE Standard of Instruction Set THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, Tuesday. SINCE it has been before tlife Health Committee of the House of Representatives, the Nurses and Midwives Registration Amendment Bill, which aims at giving facilities for private hospitals to become training centres for nurses, has undergone considerable amendment and the conditions laid down by the Bill introduced by tlie Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. .Stallworthy, in the measure which he originally brought in have been modified. One member, on hearing of the amendments contained in the report of the Health Committee on the Bill, interjected that the Bill had been “killed.”

On behalf of the Health Committee, the chairman, Mr. C. 11. Clinkard (United—Rotorua) said that much evidence on the proposals contained in the Bill was taken from ail interested oarties and the unanimous opinion of tlie committee was that the Bill should be allowed to proceed as amended. Tho committee had amended the Bill so that a public hospital might be recognised as a limited training school for nurses, but so that no private hospital could be so approved. A private hospital coulsl only Vie approved as a complete training school. No private hospital could be approved of as a training school unless provision were made for no fewer than 40 beds to be available for patients at all times receiving nursing and hospital service for no charge or for an inadequate chLftge. Originally it was proposed in th<s Bill that the daily average number of occupied beds for the six months immediately preceding tho granting of approval should not.be below 50. STANDARD OF TRAINING Another amendment provided that tho Nurses and Midwives Registration Board should not approve of any private hospital as a training school until it was satisfied that the standard of training and instruction in theoretical and practical nursing to be given would not be lower in any respect than the standard of training and instruction at those public hospitals already approved as complete training schools. Provision was made for safeguarding reciprocity with Great Britain regarding tlie registration of nurses and to safeguard that agreement still more the committee recommended that the approval of any private hospital as a training school should be revoked if the daily average number cf occupied beds, of .the public class in any period of 12 months fell below 30, or if the board, after reasonable inquiry, were satisfied that the standard of training and instruction was below the standard required by the General Nursing Council of England and Wales. A new clause providing for right of appeal from decision of the Nurses and Mid wives Registration Board lias been added to the Bill. Mr. J. A. Young (Reform—Hamilton) said that the Bill was much improved from that originally before the House. Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Labour— Christchurch East): It’s killed! Mr. Young: I don’t know about that. Mr. Armstrong: Y’es. it Is. FIRST YEARS OF TRAINING Mr. Young continued that, although tho Bill was much improved, he felt sure that it would not be approved by

tho New Zealand Trained Nurses’ Association on tho point that, though it was laid down that approved private hospitals must have a certain number of occupied public beds, there was no provision the first three years of a nurse’s training must be confined to those public beds. The Minister should make an alteration in that respect. Mr. It. McKeen (Labour —Wellington South) asked if provision were made for the Home of Compassion, at Island Bay. Tho Minister: Yes. Mr. McKeen: I am very glad. Mr. P. Fraser (Labour—Wellington Central) also expressed pleasure at this, but he thought measures should be taken against overcrowding of the nursing profession through the Bill. Ho thought, however, that there was plenty of work for nurses in the country, and urged that the services of extra nurses turned out should be used in a national nursing service, particularly in the backblocks. Mr. Armstrong thought that, on the face of tho amendments —though, of course, they must be further studied — a number of private hospitals would be prevented fron? being approved. He did not think that more than three private hospitals in the Dominion could comply successfully with the provision for 40 public beds, and it seemed to him that the objects of the Bill had been killed. INFECTIOUS DISEASE CASES Mr. A. Harris (Reform —Waitemata) asked if provision would be made for the training of nurses in respect of infectious disease cases, which at present were not admitted to private hospitals. The Minister: Full provision will be made in that direction. Mr. M. J. Savage (Labour —Auckland West) emphasised the need for representatives of tho hospital boards, which were responsible for the training of 90 per cent, of the nurses in New Zealand, on the Nurses and Midwives’ Registration Board. At present tho board was composed of professional people, and there should be included a representative of the Hospital Boards’ Association of New’ Zealand. He would like to hear the Minister say that he would agree to that. Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (Reform —Riccarton) madman appeal for the small hospitals, where. he claimed, there might be more efficiency than in a big one. Ho wondered if such hospitals as St. George’s and Lewisham, in Christchurch, would bo included in the Bill. The Minister: Yes. The report was laid on the tables and the committee reported that it had no recommendation to make regarding petitions opposing the Bill.