SIR, — I was very interested in your article The Nursing Crisis,
by Dr. Somerville Hastings, M.P., especially the paragraph on the recruitment of women with any nursing training for part-time work in hospitals. I wonder what scale of remuneration is being offered. I am a S.E.A.N. ; I have worked 31 years as a part-time nurse in a hospital. Now I do sixteen hours a week, and for that time I receive the princely sum of £30 per annum—i.e., roughly Ils. 6d. per week, or between 8d. and 9d. per hour. I presume my work is classed as skilled work, as a patient's life is often entrusted to one's care, yet an unskilled woman who comes to wield a mop and bucket will receive .2s. 6d. per hour—that would be £2 for a sixteen-hour week. Can they ever hope to overcome the nursing shortage whilst salaries and conditions are so totally inadequate to what is demanded from the nurse?—Yours truly, E. MARGARET JONES. /35 St. Annes Road East, Lytham-St. Annes.
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