The Labour Party and the Nursing Profession
1927 1927 1920s 40 pages 27 Those engaged in private nursing in some cases belong to co-operative institutions. Often, however, the name "co-operative" is inaccurate, as those institutions sometimes charge nurses excessively high commissions for securing engagements and provide th...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London : The Labour Party (London : Co-operative Print. Society Ltd.)
[1927]
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/BAFD5E37-C693-4D44-AF3A-3EDC3480BADA http://hdl.handle.net/10796/E25CF377-48B1-45FA-B281-B85A65A2AF01 |
| Summary: | 1927
1927
1920s
40 pages
27 Those engaged in private nursing in some cases belong to co-operative institutions. Often, however, the name "co-operative" is inaccurate, as those institutions sometimes charge nurses excessively high commissions for securing engagements and provide them with totally inadequate accommodation between them. Nurses working under these conditions have really two sets of employers — the private person for whom they work and the co-operative institution which arranged their engagements. It would be greatly to the public advantage if local health authorities were empowered to provide nursing hostels from which nurses could be supplied to patients needing assistance in their own homes. It is, further, desirable that the district nursing associations should be managed by the local authorities. The nursing profession is at present imperfectly organised, though a few nurses belong to Trade Union organisations, and a good many to the College of Nursing, and some others to organisations managed by representatives of hospital and other employing authorities. Some of these organisations have assisted in improving the status of nurses, but no substantial progress can be made until the organisation of the nursing profession is undertaken by associations governed exclusively by the nurses themselves. Those members of the nursing profession who occupy positions of authority, such as matrons, are of necessity representative of the employers rather than of the employed. Unfortunately, owing to the tradition of the profession, the average nurse thinks of a Trade Union as a body of manual workers continually taking part in strikes. She does not realise that every profession has found organisation necessary. Thus, doctors and lawyers have formed their own professional associations, and Civil Servants, teachers, and health visitors have also their own Trade Union associations. The only way in which nurses can deal effectively with their conditions and exercise any sort of equality in bargaining power is for the profession to be organised on Trade Union lines. * An organisation of working nurses could speak effectively for the trained nurses, and it would then be practicable to secure a National Joint Council representative on the one hand of the nursing services, and, on the other hand, of the State, municipal, and other employers concerned. It would also be possible to develop joint committees of this kind for different institutions and local committees, which would enable local grievances to be discussed and rectified. Nationally, such a body would have the task of working out satisfactory superannuation schemes and laying down maximum working hours, minimum standards of remuneration, and dealing with working conditions generally. The local joint committees could deal effectively with disciplinary questions, promotion, and other matters affecting individual nurses or small groups of nurses rather than the profession as a whole. In the meantime, there are minimum standards which those responsible as employers — and here we refer especially to members of the public bodies concerned — should endeavour to see carried out. Of these the most important appear to us to be: — 1. The establishment of a 48-hour week in institutions, and similar regulations for district nursing. District nursing, of course, presents special difficulties, but the aim should be to regulate it on the basis of a 48-hour week. 2. Annual holidays with full pay of not less than four weeks. * See page 4.
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |