IDEALS AND SALARIES .

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 235, 3 October 1929, Page 7

IDEALS AND SALARIES .

RELATION TO NURSING THE MODERN TREND. [ Special “Chronicle” Service ] AUCKLAND, Oct. 2. The opinion that it was not necessary for a girl to enter the nursing profession with high ideals and the belief that she should not expect good wages and conditions, because she was taking up an altrustic calling, was expressed by Aliss AL Lambic at the conference of trained nurses in Auckland to-day. Reference to the types of girls taken into training schools was made by a previous speaker, and Miss Lambic stated that a girl who had not had adequate home training was one who would provide a largo problem. The study of her mental outlook would be valuable and essential. There were important aspects to be considered in such a materialistic age as the present. It could not be expected that a girl would enter the calling in these days purely with high ideals and with no desire to make adequate competence. <f l know I may have a good deal of opposition in regard to this aspect of the subject,” Miss Lambic said. “I feel we have got to the stage where the nursing profession should offer adequate salary so that girls entering it can do so as a means of livelihood.” It was all very well for the old state of affairs to hold while there were not so many avenues open. The emancipation of woman had cast a different complexion on the question. The modern girl turned her head in the direction of- a calling in which she could earn a good salary, and, if the nursing profession were to attract young women, it would have to keep pace with the times in that respect. A girl taking up nursing had a perfect right to regard it as a means of earning a livelihood. There was an important place for idealism in the profession, but it should not he allowed to override the fact that those 'who undertook the work were entitled to reasonable remuneration.