Some Observations on Nursing Matters in Australia

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 1, 1 January 1921, Page 16

Some Observations on Nursing Matters in Australia

During my visit to Melbourne and Sydney, I made some -enquiries concerning nursing matters. I visited the Melbourne Hospital, the Sydney Hospital, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and Women's Hospital, Sydney. The conditions generally showed that nurses in New Zealand are in a more favourable position than in Australia. 1. Their status as professional women is secured by State registration. In Australia, while several Bill's have been, and still are, before Parliament, only one (hi Queensland) has yet been passed. 2. Their pay during course of training and after is on a higher scale (with the exception of matrons) than in Australia; one hospital, indeed, paying no salary at all for six months, and then at the rate of £12 per annum for the first year; while the full amount for three years total's only £48. This hospital has only recently given up an entrance fee of £5. At the two principal Sydney hospitals the salaries have been agreed upon at equal rates, and run from £26 in the first year to £48 in the fourth year, which is considered a ; part of the ter,m of training. The salaries of trained nurses run from £80 per annum to £150. In Government hospitals, such as Little Bay Hospital, the pay of nurses is much higher, but 1 do not know the ex act scale. The matrons of the Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospitals receive £425 per annum, and have the same class of accommodation and attendance as the matrons of our chief hospitals. The amendment to the Hospitals Act giving power to the Boards to pension officers of over ten years' service should 'also be of advantage to nurses of long service. In Australia there does not appear 1 to be any attempt at superannuation such as the scheme proposed for New Zealand nurses. 3. Hours of Duty. — Hours of duty in Australia tare, in my opinion, on a more favourable basis than in New Zealand. In Sydney the rule is 52 hours a week, one and a-half day off per week, with fnom 9 to 10 hours daily duty, reaching this average. Night nurses have two night?

off a fortnight, and two or three days on conclusion of term of night duty. Annual leave, 28 days for nurses in training, sisters and charge nurses 30 days. In Melbourne the nurses do nine to ten hours daily, with one whole day off per week; 28 days' annual leave; ten days per year sick leave, which, if not required for this purpose, 'is accumulated and added to final leave. Quarters. — 1 visited the imw additions to Ihe Royal Prince Alfred Nurses' Home. These are vciry similar to those provided at the nurses' homes in all our prineipaJ hospitals. One feature at Prince Alfred is a reception-room for visitors of either sex, which is an ordinary, comfortable drawing-room, and which, in fact, was the original nurses' sittinig-raom of the home. A large recreation-worn, with a stage for concerts and a good floor for dancing, is a feature of the new block. The Sydney Hospital is now faced the difficulty of accommodation for nurses. The old Nightingale Home being quite inadequate, a proposal to take a large place in Woolloomooloo was so strenuously opposed by the nursing staff, on account of its undesirable surroundings, that the committee had to give up the idea and has now bought a terrace of houses facing the Do- • main, which will have to be adapted. Diet. — A recent change at the Royal Prince Alfred is not regarded as an improvement. The nurses' meals were formerly cooked in the Nurses' Home kitchen. They are now cooked in the general kitchen. The material provided is good, but lack of proper cooling chambers and other reasons make it difficult to mako sufficient variety. Affiliation of country hospitals for purposes of training is carried out in a minor degree in Victoria by nurses from small hospitals serving for an .additional term in one or moire of the special hospitals, according to what the training in the first hospital lacks; for instance, nurses from the Austin Hospital for incurables and from smaller country hospitals go to the Women's Hospital, Gynecological De-

partment, for surgical work. Some go to the Eye and Ear Hospital, some to the Fever Hospital, before sitting for the association exapnination. Midwifery Nurses. — There is State registration of midwives in three of the States — Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia. There does not appear to be any inspection of midwives, -and in regard to maternity homes, there are no nurses* inspectors, though they are licensed. There are only two recognised training-schools in Victoria, the Women's Hospital and the McKellar Hospital, in the country — a small place. The Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, Melbourne, staffed by women doctors, is about to ibuild a maternity wing. I^ees for training in Victoria are: Six months' course for trained nurses, £15; 12 months' course for untrained Avomen, £30. There are plenty of applicants. Nurses from outside applying are informed that the vacancies for two years ahead are filled. In Xew South Wales there are four training-school's. The fees a« : For six months' course for trained nurses, 25 guineas; for 12 months' course for trained nurses, 50 guineas. There appears to be no shortage of applicants under these terms. At the North Sydney Hospital it is now intended to establish a maternity wing, and for this purpose a street of cottages near by has been purchased, and these buildings are to be adapted. Infant Welfare AVork.— ln Melbourne I visited one of the Baby Health Centres which have been established throughout the city and suburbs by Philanthropic Committees, and which do practically the same work as the Plunket Society here, though the feeding is not restricted to humanised milk, but ordinary modified coav's milk is used and Glaxo and other patent foods, the climate, especially in the summer time, not being favourable to the humanising of milk on Plunket methods. Lectures are delivered at the centres by medical officers, and the nurses instruct the mothers at the creches and visit them in their homes. There are 17 of these centres, and a home where babies will be taken in is just being established. The Truby King Home, under the late Matron

of Karitane, Miss Lucy Mori and, is alsfa being established under a separate committee. Many people in Melbourne think it is not at all necessary to have another organisation for this work introduced, when already excellent work is being done. Sanatoria. — I visited two military sanatoria. One. at Went worth Kails, on the Blue Mountains, was originally a private establishment, and was taken over and added to by the Red Cross Society. There were no features of this place which I consider superior to our own sanatoria, with the exception that the whole place is connected throughout and to the nurses' home by covered-in corridors and pathways, and is thus more convenient for management. There is also a civil sanatorium at Went worth Falls, but I did not have time to visit it. The Lady Davidson Red Cross Consumptive Home at Kurnigan Chase, North Sydney, is a new sanatorium not yet complete. The nucleus is a private house in which doctor's and matron's and nurses' quarters are. The quarters for the nurses are not very comfortable, and will have to be enlarged. The cot cases are treated in wards of 24 beds, with wide verandahs, and these wards are near the administrative block. The other cases are in open shelters of 18 beds each, with very, wide verandahs, and some of these are. at a considerable distance from dining and recre-ation-rooms; in fact, the place is very scattered and consequently xrvy difficult to manage with a small staff. There is no outlook, the place being surrounded by gum trees, vegetables and fruit gairden, in which the patients do graduated work. I do not hink this place is to be compared with the Pukeora Sanatorium. Massage. — In regard to massage, there is as yet no legislation in Australia, though it is intended to bring in a Bill both in Victoria and New South Wales. In the meantime there are two voluntary associations which practically control the profession. The length of training varies in the two States, being two years in Victoria and 18 months in New South Wales, but the difference is made up by the more

intensive course of study in the latter. During the University course the students have actual dissection to do together Avith the medical students. A number of masseuses were specially trained for military work, but gtot no special terms, as in New Zealand. In New South Wales they were nol qualified until they completed their full course, but in Victoria they were trained for shorter periods for each branch of work separately, and could not become members of the Association or receive certificates as masseuses until after termination of military service, when they could complete their training in the other branches. At the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital there is a masseuse on the honorary staff who directs the work of the

resident masseuses (three in number) and the instruction of the students in the theoretical and practical work. These resident masseuses live in the medical officers' quarters, and share their dining and sitting rooms. They do not come under the jurisdiction of the matron, but rank with the medioal residents. The position does not appear to be at all the correct one. The length of their training cannot place them on a par with either medical officers or qualified nurses. The massage department at the Prince Alfred Hospital is in the basement. While it is provided with all the essentials, it is not so well fitted up as at Christchurch, Kotorua, or Trentham. H. M.