Report of the Working Party on the Recruitment and Training of Nurses.

Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Working Party on the Recruitment and Training of Nurses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/132 (page 23)
    necessary, since by sampling the field, provided the sample is representative, information sufficiently accurate can be collected for the hospital profession as a whole. Fortunately, the Hospital Surveys for each Region published in 1945 provided the basic material which permitted a representative sample of hospitals to be chosen. There were two limitations: first, the details in the Surveys related to the year 1938 and, second, they did not cover the mental field. 65. Accordingly, a sample of hospitals in Great Britain was chosen from the Surveys by the method of “‘ stratified sampling’. The sampling units 7.e., the hospitals, were divided into groups, by region and type. From each of these _ groups a proportion was taken at random so as to provide a 5 per cent. sample of the total staffing strength in the group in 1938. Each group or stratum of hospitals, é.g., voluntary general in the London Region, was a fairly homogeneous group, represented in the sample in the same ratio as in the total population. The number chosen was sufficient to provide a 5 per cent. sample of nursing staffs of the non-mental hospitals in 1938. 161 hospitals of all types from all parts of the country were thus taken, voluntary and municipal, teaching, training, non- training, including tuberculosis sanatoria, infectious diseases and maternity hospitals. 66. We could not, of course, assume that the sample of 5 per cent. in 1938 would remain 5 per cent. in 1946. Many changes had taken place in the hospitals : some had grown, others had been reduced in size ; some had closed down. In a few cases, non-training schools had become approved training schools. The sample numbers obtained for 1938 were therefore adjusted appropriately in the light of the figures independently supplied for hospital staffs as at the end of 1945. The resulting figures of 5 per cent. in 1946 were confirmed by comparison with figures of hospital nursing strength shown in current Ministry of Health returns. As many nurses as possible in the sample hospitals were given one or more tests. 67. As there were no Surveys for the mental hospitals we had to make our own “survey ” of this field in order to secure a basis for sampling. Having done this, the subsequent procedure was similar to that employed in the case of the non- mental hospitals. 23 mental hospitals and institutions were chosen at random from sources giving the total number of mental hospitals and institutions in Great Britain. 68. A specially devised questionnaire was circulated to these 184* hospitals, divided as shown in the Table below. TABLE XV Number and type of hospitals in the sample Type of Hospital Training Non-Training General— Number Number Voluntary ar a ah Aiea hie a 33 20 Municipal We Ae st a oe 18 16 Mental ae ag re vee a: ee 20 3 Maternity .. ; be se - phe 14 ii Infectious Diseases at es be ee 16 13 Tuberculosis Sanatoria .. ie ret as 8 14 TOTAL a a ie on 109 73 * Two hospitals did not return the questionnaire.