PREFERENCE TO OWN GIRLS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1931, Page 4

PREFERENCE TO OWN GIRLS

SELECTION OF PROBATIONERS.

VIEW'S OF HOSPITAL BOARD.

Had anything been done about the selection of Taranaki girls if possible in preference to outside girls as probationers? asked Mr. J. Brown at the monthly meeting of the Taranaki Hospital Board in New Plymouth yesterday. He Was glad Mr. Brown had raised the question, said Mr. E. ■ Gilmour. The matter had been troubling him for some time. He knew two fine girls, in New Plymouth who had had their applications in for a very loug time and had not been able to be appointed. He would suggest that a list of applicants during the last 12 months should be given the board, said Mr. A. J. BrSnnan, with a note against the names of the probationers selected. The board had thrashed the matter out before, but nothing had been done. The matron had assured him that no preference was shown to any applicant beyond the question of suitability, said the chairman (Mr. 8. Vickers). The bylaws of the hospital provided that a list should be kept by the matron and that the applicants should be selected as far as possible in order of application. . The board could not take the discretionary power away from the matron without danger of loss of efficiency. The nursing staff at present was of a very high standard and the board was proud of it. He himself while a member of the board had a daughter waiting two ’years on the probationers’ list and she withdrew before she was taken on.

The board should know who was being appointed and who was being turned away, said Mr. Brennan. “The point is this,” said Mr. Brown. “If the girls are not suitable they should be told so.”

The board had to remember, said Mr. Vickers, that many of the girls put in their applications at the same time to half a dozen hospitals.

Mr. J. W. Winfield asked that the number of Taranaki girls as compared with Outside girls on the staff should be provided.

The board decided to ask the matron to supply a/list of the applications for the last 12ononths, with a note against the names of the girls who' had been selected.