Nursing for Maoris.

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume V, Issue 2, 1 April 1912, Page 26

Nursing for Maoris.

Department of Hospitals and Charitable Aid,

Wellington, 31st. January, 1912. Circular No. 102.

The nurses will be appointed and paid by the Department, but they will be under the control of the Hospital Board of the district to which they are sent.

Nurses will be required to report to the Boards on the sanitary conditions of the kaingas in their respective districts, and the prevalence of disease —infectious and ordinary. These reports should be sent in to the Board not less than once a month.

In matters of urgency a special report shall be sent in to the Boards. A duplicate of all these reports shall be forthwith sent by the Secretary to the District Health Officer of the district, who in turn will transmit such reports to Head Office.

The nurses appointed will need to be trained as nurses and midwives. Their first duty will be to attend on the natives, but they will be expected to attend to Europeans in cases of emergency. It must be carefully noted, however, that their first duty is to attend to the natives. They must not assume the functions of a medical practitioner, but should do all in their power to enlist the sympathy and co-opera-tion of the medical men in their districts in connection with the work. The duties of the nurse appointed are as follows : (1) To report on the sanitary condition ol the kaingas and the prevalence of sickness therein.

(2) To make such recommendation a? she thinks fit for the improvement thereof, or with a view to prevent the spread of diseases. In these matteis the nurse must look for the co-operation of the medical men of the district, the medical officer appointed by the Board for this purpose, the District Health Officer, and the Sanitary Inspector.

(3) She shall pay special attention to the feeding of native children and shall advise the mothers accordingly. In these matters her personal influence on the native mothers must be much relied upon.

(4) She shall advise expecting native mothers, and shall, where possible, attend them in their confinements.

(5) In the event of sickness in a native family, she shall advise the Secretary cf the Hospital Board, with the view of obtaining the services of a medical man. In the event of an outbreak of infectioiis disease she shall immediately advise the Hospital Board and the District Health Officer.

(6) So far as possible she shall keep a record of the births and deaths of natives in her district.

(7) She shall personally instruct natives in hygiene, the management of sick children, and the preparation of suitable food.

(8) She shall pay visits of inspection to the native schools, in which case copies of her reports will also be transmitted to the Education Department.

These appointments will be open to Maori and European nurses. First preference, however, will be given to Maori nurses who have shown their ability for sick nursing. In the event of it being necessary to appoint two nurses for the natives of any particular district, it will be so arranged that, if possible, one nurpe will be European and the other Native.

The Nurses appointed should afford every encouragement to native girls as regards instructing them in the elements of sick nursing, sanitation, etc. Subject to the approval of the Board, native gills who show pro-

mise of making suitable nurses may be attached to their staffs.

Nurses appointed will be provided by the Board with such appliances and drugs as may be considered necessary. The nurses will be stationed in those parts of the district considered by the Hospital Boards to be most central for work among the natives.

In every moment of our lives we should be trying to find out not in what we differ from other people, but in what we agree with them.-— Ruskin.