DAY OFF FOR NURSES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 167, 19 July 1935, Page 6

DAY OFF FOR NURSES

r yilE considered letter of the Reverend L. 11. Ker. which appears in this issue, concerning the matter of leave for nurses in the Wanganui Hospital, should do something to put this matter in a more favourable light from the standpoint of the public. The hospital authorities are conscious that there is no willingness on the part of the public to contribute more than is necessary at the present, moment in hospital rates. To be in aceord with that public desire, the hospital authorities apparently are striving to be as economical as they possibly can. In this they are to be commended. In the desire to fulfil that call for economy, however, it would appear that, to borrow the language of Mr. Ker, the boat'd, “by a small, majority, passed a motion which has the effect of weakening their insistence on lhe nurses of lhe staff receiving one clay’s leave in seven.” This emphasis upon economy rather than upon the interests of the sfal’f, is misplaced, rightly motived (hough it bo. The medical superintendent and the matron should be empowered Io require lhe members ol' the nursing staff to return to duty at any lime that lhe needs of the patients require their presence at the hospital, and even though this cuts across the leave arrangements of the nurses such an authority should stand. The nursing proI’ession has a duty which its members perform willingly and no institution such as is the Wanganui Hospital could be properly run without the nurses being under the control of the medical supei'iiitciiclen t and the matron at all times. But having said that, which is another way of saying I hat lhe nurses must be available in times of emergency, it does not follow that the hospital authorities, in order Io enforce an economy, should so stall' the hospital that, abnormal circumstances aside, the nurses cannot, be assured of their one day’s leave in seven. The whole of the arrangements of the hospital should be based upon Ihe assumption that the one day in seven will be a free day for each nurse. Even the provision of extra nurses and extra accommodation therefor should not he considered as out of consideration al. the present time, is so he that it is nei'css; I '-v !■> cusiirc flic nur.srs getting llieir one day’s leave in s<-vei*.