By-laws and Rules.

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 April 1908, Page 30

By-laws and Rules.

We must all sympathise with the position in which the matron of the Napier Hospital has been placed, owing to the contradictory nature of the rules under which the nurses are engaged, and the by-laws of the Hospital. The former give the matron the power of dismissing a nurse for disobe dience or misconduct of any kind, whereas the by-laws give her, as is the proper and usual course, the power of suspension and reporting to the Board, which afterwards takes the onus upon itself of confirming or otherwise the matron's action in dismissing or reprimanding the nurse. In the case now before the public, the matron had reported to her the alleged cruelty of a nurse to a child, and having had several complaints about the same nurse, after consultation with the doctor, decided to dismiss her (as according to the nurses' rules she had the power , and then reported the occurrence to the chairman of the Board, who confirmed her action. Subsequently, on a demand from the nurse for

an enquiry, it was found that the matron had acted against the by-laws, and that dismissal could not take effect. The charge was also enquired into but not sustained by proof. The prejudicial effect on all discipline of the nurse remaining in the institution was then pointed out to the Board by the matron and it was felt that one or other must leave the Hospital, and in consideration that the nurse in question had been otherwise unsatisfactory, it was decided that she be given a month's notice of dismissal. At this stage the matter stands as we go to press. It is a lesson to all matrons when they take charge of institutions, to study their rules and by-laws, and make themselves fully acquainted with the power given them. As a matter of proper discipline and justice both to matron and nurses the extreme step of dismissal should rest only in the hands of the governing body, but the matron should always be able to remove by suspension any disturbing element from the staff. — Editor.