THE NURSE'S TRAINING
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is good that The Spectator should interest itself in the training of our nurses, and, having been associated with nurses in hospital daily for the past quarter of a century,
I read with interest the article on " The Nurse's Training " in last week's issue. That it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain a sufficient supply of hospital nurses is only too true, but I am in some doubt as to whether your correspondent has correctly stated the cause or causes of this falling off. It has been represented to me by a ward-sister that nurses are finding difficulty in obtaining remunerative work after finishing their training, that probationers are constantly entering the hospitals, being trained and then sent out to swell the already overcrowded ranks of private nurses. This sister suggested that more and better paid posts should be provided on the permanent nursing staffs of the hospitals, whereby the need for constantly obtaining new probationers would be greatly lessened and the excess of private nurses diminished.
The education of the nurse in hospital calls in my opinion for considerable modification, not necessarily to attract the well educated girl, who may or may not prove a better nurse than her less educated sister, but to make it more practical and from the nurse's point of view less highbrow. The idea of clinical teaching for nurses is an excellent one.
I am not much impressed by the .comparison of hospital life and discipline with that of college to the disadvantage of the former and I hope in any correspondence that may result from your medical correspondent's articles care will be taken not to arouse quite unnecessary discontent with a life which, hard as it is, has its compensations. But those who sympathise with nurses, and especially those who discuss them in the Press, can show their appreciation of the services rendered by the nursing profession in a much more practical way than is usually followed, namely by arranging for nurses to share their social life, and by providing clubs and playgrounds where nurses could obtain the relaxation and physical exercise they so much need. Our large employers provide sports grounds for their staffs and at the moment everybody is talking of physical training for improving and maintaining health; yet so far I hear nothing of steps being taken to provide facilities- for nurses, on whose care we rely to restore us to health should sickness overcome us. If it is not possible to provide special athletic grounds, would not one or more of the large employers grant the freedom of their athletic grounds to the nurses of hospitals, which for the purposes of the scheme might be divided into groups ?—Yours faithfully,
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