State Registration of Nurses in Australia

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVII, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 172

State Registration of Nurses in Australia

Another step has been taken m the direction of giving the nurses of the great Commonwealth a legal status by the passage of the Nurses' Registration Act, Victoria, on July Ist, 1924. New South Wales is the last of the States to take this very necessary step, but there is a Bill before the House, which passed its first reading last session. The second reading was moved recently, and the measure should soon be an accomplished fact. The Bill is the result of consultations with the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association, the British Medical Association, and the officers of the Health Department. A member made a comment on the fact that as the Bill was explained the British Medical Association Avould have a controlling influence m the administration of the Act, and remarked that the history of the nursing profession showed that the B.M.A. had never exerted its influence to protect nurses or improve their conditions. Tt is to be hoped that as the Bill goe v s through committee some alterations more just to the profession may be adopted. Under the Victorian Act, we road m "Una" of September, the Board has been formed and, we are pleased to know, gives very fair representation to the nurses themselves. Dr. Zwar, who is a member of the medical staff of the Melbourne Hospital, has been appointed chairman. Miss Bell (matron of the Melbourne Hospital), Miss Mann (matron of the Alfred Hospital), Miss Conyers, R.R.C. (of the Lancewood Private Hotpital), Miss O'Reilly (who is on the staff of the Health Department), Mr. Turner, and the Hon. M. Saltau, M.L.C. (who represent, respectively, the committees of metropolitan and country training-school hospitals) are the members of the board of seven. Miss L. Crocker, who for many years has been the secretary of the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses' Association, has been appointed registrar. Miss Crocker's long experience and knowledge of nurses and the hospitals

from which they graduate should -be of very valuable assistance to the board. It is lemarked m "Una" that the satisfactory conditions of the Act are m di- small measure due to the fact that the Legislative Council did Miss Crocker the honour to ask her to meet them and discuss nursing matters. While we heartily congratulate the Victorian nurses on at last obtaining this recognition, we feel that State registration of nurses should have been a Federal measure, and so the conditions of training and examination for all Australian nurses would have been uniform. As the various Acts already passed all contain more or less conflicting clauses, there will be much difficulty ahead for those who administer them. Possibly later the various Acts may be incorporated m one and so obviate much confusion. The Central Council of the Australian Nursing Federation (which is the recent-ly-formed Central Council of the A.T.N.A. and the R.V.T.N.A., held its first meeting m Sydney m May. The affiliation of the two associations had been accomplished last year, at a meeting of delegates at Melbourne. Dr. Millard, of Coast Hospital, Sydney, is the president. Miss Conyers, R.R.C., C.B.E. (of Melbourne), Miss Kendall Davies (Sydney), Dr. Marks (Queensland), Miss Murray (South Australia), Miss Broomhall and Miss Gill (Western Australia), and Miss Carpenter (Tasmania) were the delegates.

Attention is drawn m "Una" to the advisability of nurses already qualified at once applying for registration under the Victorian Act during the term of grace. A fully-qualified nurse now m England, who has missed her registration under the General Nursing Council, was advised by that Board to apply m Victoria, so that when reciprocity is eventually arranged she would then be accepted. This nurse wrote that already 400 fully-quali-fied nurses who had applied too late were

not eligible, the term of grace having expired, and adds: "What the future will mean to them one dare not think, for already everyone is asking for State-regis-tered nurses." Nurses trained m New Zealand are fortunate m that reciprocity

was the first arranged of all the British Dominions between the General Nursing Council and the Division of Nursing, Health Department. This they owe to the fact of having had legal recognition since 1901.