Britain's Health Services
1942-10 1942 1940s 40 pages A great deal can be done at once to meet the nursing shortage by other means. Firstly, employment to the full of State Registered Nurses who have left the profession to get married. There is still evidence that this has not been done to the extent that might be (see lette...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
|---|---|
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : Communist Party of Great Britain
October 1942
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C5906F77-B866-4457-A9E1-F40029B9D77B http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9DB7F6A8-A28A-4616-8384-F896341CDEA0 |
| Summary: | 1942-10
1942
1940s
40 pages
A great deal can be done at once to meet the nursing shortage by other means. Firstly, employment to the full of State Registered Nurses who have left the profession to get married. There is still evidence that this has not been done to the extent that might be (see letters to News Chronicle, 24.8.42). Secondly, thousands of fully trained senior nursing sisters are employed in non-nursing duties as home sisters, housekeepers, laundry supervisors, linen-room sisters, etc. An investigation of the Central Bureau of Hospital Information in 1932 showed that in hospitals associated with medical schools, out of a total nursing staff of 6,106 there were 209 engaged entirely in administrative or other duties (Memo. 41, Central Bureau Hospital Information, January, 1932). If the ratio is the same for all hospitals (and it is probably not very different), this means over 5,000 fully trained nurses in England and Wales employed in non-nursing work. Many of these could be temporarily replaced and enabled to return to nursing. This would be valuable, as the deficiency of nurses is principally in the senior grades of trained staff. The general shortage of hospital staff of all kinds, however, can be greatly alleviated by the cutting-out of all non-essential work and by the best utilisation of available labour. How can this be achieved by health workers themselves? The answer is as in Industry — through Joint Committees representative of the workers and management. A Joint Consultative Committee (analogous to Joint Production Committees elsewhere) should be set up in every hospital. The idea is not new. There have always been Medical Staff Committees, and quite recently the British Hospitals Association recommended all their affiliated Hospitals to recognise Nurses Councils to advise on nursing questions. We are suggesting an extension of this principle to a Committee of elected representatives from all types of hospital workers, co-operating with the management in hammering out practical solutions to the many problems confronting us. With what sort of matters could the Joint Consultative Committee deal? Here are some suggestions:— Rationalising the duties of skilled and less skilled nurses. Elimination of some of the clerical routine done in the wards 12
15X/2/103/252 |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | TEXT |