Superannuation for Nurses

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XI, Issue 3, 1 July 1918, Page 139

Superannuation for Nurses

Some correspondence appearing in the Christchurch papers on the above subject has been forwarded to us. It is a subject which is, of course, of the greatest interest to nurses, and it is one which, although apparently unknown to some of the writers, has been before the Government on many occasions. All Government nurses are entitled to superannuation, in fact they are obliged to contribute towards it by the deduction from their salaries being made, as for other civil servants, before they receive their monthly pay. Towards this fund the Government makes a fair contribution. With regard to hospital nurses, there is provision in the Act governing hospitals for boards to make provision for their employees, but no advantage has been taken of tins provision. Private nurses, being unattached to any public organisation or body, cannot be provided for in this way, but under the National Provident Act they can insure for their old age or sickness. The writers do not take into consideration the many difficulties there are in the way of superannuation, one of the chief

being that nurses as a body are not sta tionary. They move from hospital to hospital, and from hospital to private nursing. They propose no scheme workable or unworkable. We consider something might be done : 1. By the hospital boards as soon as a probationer nurse is taken on the staff after the probationery period, taking out an insurance policy for her, deducting so much from her salary and paying a proportion of the annual premium. The deduction and the board's payment to increase year by yearns the nurse's pay increases. 2. Should the nurse leave the staff of that hospital and join another, the board should then hand on the policy to the hospital to which the nurse is appointed and the same payments be carried on. 3. Should the nurse take up private nursing she should herself assume the full payments and thus secure the advantage of the whole period during which she has been insured. The writers do not apparently contemplate any contribution towards superannuation out of their own pockets, but, of course,

in all such schemes, as for example, m the Government, superannuation for teachers and public health nurses, some portion should come from the person to be benefited. Again, the writers mention the low pay of nurses. In this we agree that the professional work of trained nurses is not sufficiently remunerated. The public considers that three guineas a week is a good fee, and so, perhaps, were it possible that a nurse should be continuously employed and therefore not at any living expense, this might be, but that is not possible. There are periods when nurses, even the most sought after, are out of work for a few days or a week every now and then, with the result that although the fee is three guineas per week she by no means clears £156 a year. Also she must have a holiday or she would quickly break down, but not so quickly, we hope, as one of the writers suggests. We also feel that in regard to fees, the hard and fast rule of three guineas per week is by no means a fair and just one. The indifferent nurse works on exactly the same terms as the best qualified and most popular nurse. Why should there not be a sliding scale ? A higher fee in serious ases, major operations, and so on, so that

b nurse with a reputation for ability and also for personal qualities which contribute towards the recovery of her patient, might command, which very frequently she earns, remuneration more equal to her responsibility and work. This ■would be only just to those who give of their best to their patients. Ability should tell. Just as in the medical profession the clever surgeon or the most capable physician can command higher fees than the less able of their profession, so should the more capable surgical nurse or the more experienced and favourite medical nurse also be able to obtain a higher fee than her sister who has just qualified, or who by careless nursing and lack of the qualities of unselfish devotion which make a really good nurse, has made herself dreaded in a house and is never asked for and sought after. Merit should have some reward, and we commend it to the attention of the Trained Nurses' Association that while it may be advisable to have some jurisdiction over the fees chargeable by its members, it is not, in the best interests of nursing to make all a dead level. If one nurse can command a larger fee than another by reason of her own good work, by all means within reason, permit her to do so.