MATERNITY NURSING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 17 December 1927, Page 5

MATERNITY NURSING.

THE NEW REGULATIONS. MASTERTON’S DIFFICULTY. . At the Wairarapa Hospital Board meeting yesterday afternoon the Matron reported that since the new regulations governing the training of maternity nurses had been in force, four prospective trainees had removed their names from the list of applications and there were now no other applications for training. In this connection the Central Committee recommended that in the event of there being no further applicants for training in the maternity annexe, the annexe be closed down when those at present in training have completed their course. Speaking in support of the recommendation, Mr W. Fisher (chairman of the Central Committee) stated that action was the only manner in which they could bring the Nurses 7 Registration Board to its senses. The Hospital Boards 7 Association would support them strongly and if other hospitals situated similarly to Wairarapa would also protest they could probably use their influence to some effect. •Mr E. G. Eton (chairman of the board) moved that the clause be deleted from the committee’s report, stating that he would bo very sorry to see such a drastic step taken by the board. The maternity annexe, he said, was too important an adjunct to the hospital for them to close it down merely because they could not get from the Department all they asked for. He thought tho board should keep going and fight its case fairly on its merits. If that failed the extra burden of staffing the annexe with fully trained nurses would have to be borne by the ratepayers. The motion was seconded by Mr J. C. Ewington who said he recognised from the committee’s report that it did not actually intend to close the annexe but took such action to bring pressure indirectly on the Department. Air Fisher explained *thta the committee actually had no intention of closing the annexe, but wanted this resolution passed to strengthen the hand of the Hospital Boards 7 Association. The association, he said, was doing its best to have the Nurses’ Registration Board abolished and the speaker hoped they would succeed, for the Nurses’ Board had been nothing but a nuisance since its inception. He pointed out that maternity nurses could get as good a training at Alasterton as they could get in any St. Helen’s Hospital in New Zealand.

Air W. B. Marti-n (Marti nborough) said it was no use trying to bluff tho matter through and closing the institution down just to gain their point. He thought it was a grave error in tactics and felt that they should proceed to argue the case with the Nurses’ Board and the Department on its merits.

Mr J. F. Thompson (Grevtown) considered that the Nurses’ Registration Board had failed the Wairarapa Board and other boards badly, and it was just a question •whether the Nurses’ Board had not exceeded its powers in bringing this newvregulation into force. Mr T. F. Moore (Carterton) opposed the motion, stating that Mr Eton had given no solution of the problem. It was either a matter of closing the institution or paying trained nurses for work that trainees should and could do. The board had already protested three times without success aud more direct action was required. Mrs W. H. Jackson thought that the nurses could assist the board by objecting by petition to the policy of the Nurses’ Board in reducing the status of the Masterton annexe from a midwifery training school to a maternity training school. To close the .institution would uot be keeping faith with the public. Mr Eton’s motion to delete the clause was carried by seven votes to five.