NURSING PROFESSION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 140, 16 June 1932, Page 8

NURSING PROFESSION

THE QUESTION OF FEES [ Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, June 15. A. letter has been received by the editor of the Evening Post signed by five nurses officially representing the New Zealand Trained Nurses’ Association, in reference to the statement made at the Hospital Boards’ Conferenc< that there would be less unemployment among the nursing profession if private nurses throughout the Dominion would lower their fees. The letter protests against the suggestion that nurses are unwililng to shoulder their share of the financial burden now pressing on al] classes of the community. As a matter of fact, the nurses, ever since the period of depression, have reduced their fees voluntarily as a matter of arrangement with the patient as occasion demanded. It is stressed that nurses cannot possibly work more than nine months in the year, due to the fact that their’s is a seven-day week and a ten to fifteen-hour day. Out of a nurse’s fees she must pay for a room, her laundry and bureau calls, equipment, holiday, and in many cases contribute to tlie maintenance of aged or invalid relatives. She must also make provisions for possible sickness, and, if there should be anything over, for old age. In view of the above the executive committee, realising that private nurses generally are in sympathy with the present needs of the public, have adopted a sliding scale, and feels very strongly that the standard of fees should remain as at present. . * The letter expresses appreciation of the sympathy expressed for unemployed trained nurses at the conference, and a recommendation made that the boards should temporarily absorb some of their number.