Adelaide Hospital and Ntirses for War Service

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume X, Issue 3, 1 July 1917, Page 167

Adelaide Hospital and Ntirses for War Service

Action recently taken by the governing authorities of the Adelaide Hospita] with a view to releasing nurses for war service is in marked contrast to the attitude which has been adopted by similar institutions in Victoria and other States (says the Lader). At the Adelaide Hospital the nurses are now being permitted to sit for their final examination after they have been in training for two and a half years, and immediately they qualify they are engaged as sisters for the remaining six months of their three years' course at an increase in salary equivalent to £50 a year. By promoting probationer nurses in this way the hospital finds it possible to release some of the trained staff for war service. Surgeon- General Fetherston, DirectorGeneral of Medical Services, who last week pointed out the urgency of the present need for more nurses for military work, expressed great satisfaction at the action of the Adelaide Hospital. He contrasted

it with the attitude adopted by the big hospitals in Melbourne and other capital cities, where the governing authorities were still insisting upon nurses serving a four years' course of training. So far there has been no need in New Zealand to send away on active service any nurse with under four years' experience, that is with one year after qualifications. It is a rule of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service that nurses must be qualified one year, and therefore the desire of the hospital training schools to retain their fourth year does not clash with military needs. Australia, however, having so many hospitals to staff and so very many more men away, is not in the same position, and is still sending large contingents of nurses, while at the present time none are being sent from New Zealand, much to the disappointment of the many volunteers still waiting their turn.