CORRESPONDENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2646, 8 March 1898, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

LONG HOURS FOR NURSES. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMARU HERALD. Sib, — I wish to give a little information about the hours that the hospital nurses are compelled to work, and I may say that my information is from personal observation At present the half-dozen ' nurses engaged at the Timaru Hospital are on duty for fourteen hours at a stretch out of the twenty-four. It is only fair to i state that five hours per week out of this time are allowed, but not five consecutive i hours. The time off duty allowed is two hours and a half twio.p a week, which is not by any means five consecutive hours. How is it, that m large hospitals, such as the Dunedin and Chriatchurch hospitals, the hours are, what is generally considered a working day, viz— eight hours. If m such institutions they can manage this, how ia it that at Timaru there is such a heavy demand on the time of the nurses P I may state that this long day of fourteen hours is not a special, but a regular, thing. It would seem as if the hospital staff was not sufficiently large to do the work, or that the Hospital Board were careless as to the health of those m their employ. It stands to reason that a girl who is on her feet for fourteen hours a day doing the arduous work required m the hospital, is m danger of collapsing from overwork, as has been the case m more than one instance. In writing thus I wish merely to bring this matter" to the notice of thoae who are i responsible, and I hope the result will be an inquiry into the facts, when I have no doubt an improvement will be effected. I am, etc., Ex-Patient.