Dental Nursing Scheme

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 1, 1 January 1921, Page 27

Dental Nursing Scheme

There has been in the daily papers much correspondence regarding the scheme evolved by the Director of Dental Services, Mr. Hunter, formerly Col. Hunter, O.C. of the Dental Division of the New Zealand Forces, in conjunction with the Director-General iof Health and the medical officers of the Education Department. t The scheme has been brought before the Nurses* Association at the council meetings of the two branches at Wellington and Dunedin. The Dunedin branch did not approve. The Wellington branch approved with certain reservations. It is desired by the Director of the Dental Division to enlist the help and co-op-eration of trained nurses, and in regard to appointments, preference is to be given to applicants belonging to the nursing profession. From the point of view of efficiency in the work it is hoped to set on foot for the children of the Dominion, there is no doubt that should trained nurses take up this work, it is the more likely to be assured, though it is contended that the training for two years of unqualified women for the comparatively simple work expected will be really sufficient. From the point of view of the qualified nurse, one cannot but feel that her years of training and experience in the care of serious' cases of illness in which life and death are involved would be wasted when her -skill is to be confined to the limits proposed. Although it is recognised that her professional training as a nurse would enable her to quickly gain the additional knowledge required for dental work so limited, it is not proposed to give her any concession in point of time or any advantage in payment above which is offered to entirely untrained women. We beg nurses to fully consider these points before taking up this work. We hope they will uphold the honour of their profession and refuse to accept conditions which do not recognise their status as pi'ofessional women. We feel that for

young nurses, at least, to abandon the wiork of actual nursing 1 ; so very important for the whole public, and in which they can do so much to alleviate suffering and save life, would be a step which would tend to lower the estimation in which, owing to their power to so alleviate suffering, they have always been held. No comparison can be made in the interest o£ the two classes of work, and for qualified nurses to take up work which could almost equally well be done by girls with a bare twio years' training would be a waste of economic value and a depreciation of their own qualifications. Had the nursing profession been overfilled, one might advocate trained nurses being used for the work ; but as things are at present in this Dominion, this is not the case. Every trained nurse is required for her own work. She cannot be spared. The attitude of the Dental Association in reference to this movement is rather difficult to understand. It is opposed by the Association, though no good reasons can be advanced for the opposition. The employment of women not qualified as dentists, even for the simple treatments they are to carry out under supervision, is strenuously opposed, ' although it is admitted that the number of workers required could hot be supplied from the ranks of qualified dentists. Moreover, as the service rendered will mostly be gratuitous, the expense of carrying out the work by fully-qualified dentists would be prohibitive. Those in favour of the scheme contend that women will do much more goiod in this work than men. Children are more easily managed by women, whose sympathy and kind handling would not be so likely to cause resentment in the child or its parents. In Australia there has been some dis^ cussion between, the members iof the Nurses' Association and the Medical Branch of the Education Department. The nurses protest against the acceptance of persons who have had no medical training for positions at a high remunerative

figure. Apparently some nurses are already appointed for dental work — one attached to a travelling Hospital, another to a travelling denial clinic; salary £150, with a travelling aHowance of £150. The intention of the Department in New South Wales in regard tq trained nurses was to employ them eventually in medical treatment clinics, either travelling hospitals or metropolitan treatment clinics, and to use them as dental assistants merely temporarily.

It is considered by the principal medical officer that ordinarily intelligent untrained women can be and are efficiently trained in six months or so to do dental assistants' work, which is a relatively unskilled form of labour. Surely in view of this statement qualified nurses will not be inclined to abandon their own profession, and, as the writer goes on to say, underrate themselves and compete against untrained women. (Reference : "The Australasian Nurses' Journal/' Nov., 1920.)