District Nursing.

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume V, Issue 2, 1 April 1912, Page 25

District Nursing.

The district nursing scheme is gradually winning its way among the people in the country, and many enquiries are being made regarding the manner of obtaining district nurses. The Hospital Boards are at last giving their attention to the matter. Under the recent Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act they had many new duties to undertake in connection with the re-organisation of their constitutions and the health of their districts. In this the preventive side by the promotion of proper sanitation and other means, is now brought more directly under their notice and control, than formerly, when they merely had to maintain institutions for the cure of disease.

It is hoped a large factor in maintaining health will be the district nurse, and the Boards recognise this. Two nurses are to be appointed in the Wairarapa district, and are now being advertised for. A nurse is to be appointed in the Motu district. One has been recently appointed in Stewart Island. One or more is to be appointed in the Waikato district.

Besides these, the nurses at Invercargill Uruti, Seddon, and Waiapa are still working steadily. The Medical Club at Waipu, north of Auckland, is about to appoint a nurse-

There are several nurses appointed by the County Councils, and subsidised at about £50 per annum and allowed to have a private practice at fees authorised by the Council.

There are also some midwifery nurses subsidised by Hospital Boards and settled in country districts. Some of these have been given free training by the Hospital Department on condition of working in the country.

Miss Kennedy writes from Uruti, that she is very busy. She has had some rough trips on bad roads and is glad she was brought up in the country, and has a fair knowledge of horses. She has had some bad cases, one of serious haemorrhage, but, fortunately, all have turned out well. She says she has met with no great hardships, although she has been in true back-block places, nor has she been asked to bake bread or milk cows !

Nurse Parker, at Waiapu, has been also kept busy. She has learnt to ride since she went there, as it is frequently the only way of

getting about. She has her own horse and is often to be seen carrying a large bundle off to her case.

The above are mainly nurses for the European population, but as well as these there are the nurses under the Native Health Scheme, who are appointed and paid b}^ the Health Department and stationed under the Hospital Boards where there are Maori pahs and settlements. The work is difficult and often very discouraging as results are so slow, but already the natives are realising that the nurse is their great helper.

There are six nurses engaged in this work, but many more will soon be required. In some districts far from hospitals or medical aid the white settlers are also included in those to whom the nurse can render aid, as the copy of rules appended for this work will show.

Nuise Beet ham ' at Okaiawa has a wide district, and' is kept very busy, the natives are now becoming acquainted with her and where at first they looked upon the pakeha nurse with suspicion, they now send for her and. consult her freely. A telephone has been installed in her cottage by the Health Department.

Nurse Cormack at Te Karaka, writes enthusiastically of the work ; she finds the people most friendly. She is lent horses and entertained hospitably when she visits the district pahs.

Nurse Lewis, at Otaki, is kept very busy and is very happy in her work. She lectures twice a week at the Maori school and has visited the pahs round Levin and Paramata. She has had an outbreak of measles and mumps to contend with.

Nurse Anderson was called away soon after she started work by the serious illness of her mother, but has since returned to Rotorua and will visitTaupo with a view of making her headquarters there. Nurse Mataira is still in this district nursing typhoid cases. Miss Bagley who has been starting and organising several of these districts is now at Te Araroa, where she is very busy. She has had two emergency maternity cases, European women. One a premature confinement, to which she was called when on her way o

Te Araroa, being summoned in the early morning when the little steamer touched at Port Awanui. Two Maori women had attended and really managed the patient quite well in their own way, one procedure being a hip bath after delivery. They did not know much about the feeding of a premature infant or the necessary care of the breasts under the circumstance, so Miss Bagley remained a week with the patient.

The other case intended going to Gisborne for her confinement, but owing to the bad weather the vessel could not put in at the

port. The little cottage at Te Araroa is most comfortable and altogether this district will be a very useful post and happy home for a nurse. The settlers have subscribed for two horses, saddles, etc., and a trap and harness for the nurse. There is to be an assistant, preferably a Maori girl, to help the nurse here. The daughter of one of the prime moveis in getting this hostel is now there with Miss Bagley. The only doctor is fifty miles away and at times cannot possibly cross the rivers. A telephone will probably be provided in the cottage as the Post Office is some distance away.