A Church Nurse's Work

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVI, Issue 4, 1 October 1927, Page 201

A Church Nurse's Work

As I am the only Church Nurse, I have not had the privilege of arguing with another as to who should speak on this occasion about this class of work.

Knox Church is the only church m New Zealand, as far as I know, that has on its staff a trained district nurse.

The position came into being about nine years ago, through a legacy left to the church by one of its members, for the purpose of paying the salary of a trained nurse to work amongst the people of the church and the poor of the city. It was decided that the work should be largely undenominational and the nurse's services free, she to gauge the boundary and extent of her labours by time and her own discretion. The nurse was supplied with a well stocked cupboard of remedies and nursing accessories ; the latter have proved invaluable for lending purposes. The Church grants money to replenish the stock and to help needy cases.

The nurse has her office m one of the church's buildings, where she keeps all that pertains to her work, and where she is to be found daily at a stated time by anyone wanting advice or nursing assistance. Her working hours are roughly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but she can vary time according to patients' welfare and her own convenience.

Patients come from varied sources. The Minister or members of the Church ring up telling of homes where nursinghelp is needed and desired. Doctors solicit help, also private people. As a general rule the Church nurse gets her patients from among church-going people. She does not reach the down and outs as the St. John Ambulance nurses often do.

No small part of the work is giving instruction m nursing to those m the homes of the patients. Women are generally eager to learn and grateful for information.

There are invalids to be visited who cannot come to church, and there are church activities to be linked up with.

A Creche has been started on Sunday morning so that mothers with young children who wish to go to church can leave their little ones there. The nurse takes charge of this.

At the Knox Girls' Club, to which about 100 belong, she sometimes gives talks to sections of it on a nursing subject; or gives demonstrations of bed-making and bathing a patient. For this purpose she has a large doll and miniature bed and appliances. Other church clubs call on her for the same services.

In connection with the Presbyterian Church we have a Women's Missionary Training Institute, where girls are trained who wish to go as missionaries or become deaconesses. The nurse gives these students nursing lectures once a week. Sometimes they are given practical work with the patients. Now a word about District Nursing. In hospital life many a nurse has felt she had no time to be kind, or at least as kind as she would like to be. The scope is found m District Nursing. Nursing m district work can become a high art, because the nurse can put soul into it and take time to do her very best for the patient m detail. She gets to know to be interested m the patients as well as their maladies. They are distinctly individuals and she learns to look at life from their point of view and her own vision is widened.

A professor of medicine, m an address to nurses, said: "I do not believe there is an occupation m the world m which a woman has so many opportunities of doing good to her fellow creatures as m district nursing."

Florence Nightingale regarded district work as " The Flower of Nursing." Those are her own words. Certainly, it is a Avork worth while, and as the nurse goes m and out of homes helping, sympathising, relieving and educating, she finds her calling full of interest and satisfaction.