Cape Argus –
1939, February 27
The
profession of nursing, which was until comparatively recent times one of the
few to which women who wanted a career could turn, has of late attracted an
alarmingly small number of recruits. The reasons for this state of affairs are
many, but perhaps the most important one is that, judged by the standard of
most other professions, the conditions in which nursing is done are
unsatisfactory and advancement is slow, but not very sure. In other
words, hard work and little pay do not attract anybody but the girl who feels
that she has a vocation and who is willing to give disinterested service in fulfillment of it. However, reforms are now being made in various directions and
the nurses of the future should have a little cause for complaint.
To encourage
the recruitment of young women as nurses, a monster meeting was held in London.
Queen Mary, Princess Alice and the Earl of Athlone attended it and the
Archbishop of Canterbury presided. In the audience were senior girls from
schools all over the country and members of various youth organisations.
Previously they had been taken over several London hospitals so that they could
see something in the conditions in which nurses work and live.
The
Archbishop read to the meeting a message given by Queen Mary in which she said:
“Certainly,
now more than ever willing helpers are needed in the sacred cause of preventing
ill-health, of securing the safety of motherhood, and of relieving sickness and
pain. I appeal to the girls of the country to ask themselves whether they may
not find in this profession not only a career of interest and usefulness but
one of the truest and noblest forms of national service.” Her Majesty’s
words, said the Archbishop, admirably summarized the purpose of the meeting.
Referring to the report recently made by the Inter-departmental Committee on
the Nursing Services over which Lord Athlone presided, he hoped that it would
result in the removal of all reasonable grounds for dissatisfaction. He
stressed, however, the fact, as did each of the other speakers, that nursing is
a career which still demands a sense of vocation.
Miss
Reynolds, matron of the London Hospital, suggested that women of teaching
ability were sorely needed in the nursing profession, as sister tutors for the
theoretical instruction of student nurses, or as dieticians; as ward sisters;
as industrial nurses in factories and as district and public health nurses. For
the ambitions, she concluded, there was unlimited scope in the profession of
nursing.
The report of
the Interdepartmental Committee on Nursing Services to which reference was made
at the meeting was largely the work of the joint secretaries Sir Weldon
Dalrymple-Champneys and Mr. W.A.B.M. Hamilton.
“To their
energy and enterprise,” noted the committee headed by Lord Athlone, “we largely
owe the immense amount of valuable information placed before us, while the
co-ordination of as much complex detail is a tribute to their skill.”
Sir Weldon
Dalrymple-Champneys, Bt., an official in the British Ministry of Health, was in
Cape Town two years ago when he collected Button Spiders for a particular piece
of scientific investigation in which he was engaged.
His interest
in the medical health of the nation is hereditary. His father, the late Sir
Francis Champneys, obtained the first charter for midwives in Great Britain
(the first Midwives Act).
For some time
Sir Weldon has been investigating the shortage of nurses in Great Britain and
looking into the working conditions which seem to make nursing unattractive to
young women. As a result of his committee’s report hospital conditions are
likely to be greatly improved from the nurse’s point of view.
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