NURSES IN ITALY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21026, 3 May 1938, Page 12

NURSES IN ITALY

NEW OCCUPATION (By Elisabeth Kyle.) Few Italian women, even to-day, welcome the thought of a professional career while it is almost unheard-of for any young girl whose parents ave means to take up a profession or business as many British girls do. The home is r nsidered woman’s place and marriage is still the goal, an attitude enco iraged by the present political regime. But, in Italy as in every country, some women are forced to earn their living by various circumstances, though they seldom seek work in scnolastic directions nowadays, unless especially gifted. The Italian State has exerted itself of late to raise the status of nursing to a profession worthy of contemplation by girls of good families. Hitherto nursing has been the Cinderella of Italy. It was left almost entirely in the hands of the Nuns, who were untrained save in what -hey nad learned from more experienced members of their Order. Male nurses were employed otherwise, especially in the scuth of Italy, since the Nuns disliked nursing men and there was a deep prejudice against allowing unmanned women to do so.

Modern Italy, however, has decided to change all that. Magnificent hospitals have been built, and are being built all over the country’, the one in Milan being a model of up-to-date hygiene and equipment. The -talian Red Cross staffs the State hospitals w’ith women who have had training as specialised and as thorough as that of any other country in Europe. In addition, many of the nurses avail themselves of the facilities offered by the Florence Nightingale Foundation, whereby they can go to England and undergo some supplementary training at one of the big London hospitals.