NURSES AT WANGANUI HOSPITAL
Sir, —There are always two sides to (‘very question and I have often won dcred that during so much discussion some of the many benefits to the nurses fiavo not been mentioned. I have the greatest admiration lor the nurses, so am in no way biased against them. Anyone who desires to get on in this life is prepared Io sacrifice a little, and when you think that in three years the nurses are trained free for a valuable profession. In addition they got paid from the day they enter and are also provided with uniforms, keep, washing and everything is done for them except, the making of their own beds. If they do give up a certain amount of free time for study, surely this is to their own great ad v antage. Karitune nurses work long hours and have to pay a premium for so doing. I would point that the nurses are far better oil’ than the girl in a shop who is on her feet all day and out in all weathers. She leaves home at 8 a.m. and does not get back till 6 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. on Fridays. To my knowledge many of these girls have to work when they get home. They get one afternoon off whereas a nurse on night or morning dut, gets every afternoon. Take the medical student, who
works many more hours than the nurses and has to pay handsomely for doing it, besides giving up .'rom six to eight years of hi a life in study. The point that all the trouble is about, a full day olf a week, seems to me like making a mountain out of a molehill. Th 0 nurses definitely do getV their day off except in cases of sick - ness amongst the nurses or unusual stress of cases coining in. If one has a maid and sickness suddenly occurs the right sort of girl will willingly forego her day off. In offices when the staff is depleted by sickness, how many hours’ overtime are given’ willingly by those who are left, to enable the work to be carried on ? There is so much trouble, suffering and want in the world that there should bo little time for deputations to waste on problems that are in the hands of a very capable hospital staff. —I am, etc., C.J.
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 198, 24 August 1935, Page 8
Word Count
400NURSES AT WANGANUI HOSPITAL Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 198, 24 August 1935, Page 8
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