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.

    62/132 (page 54)
    to all students who qualify at the end of their two years’ training, and one common Register would replace the present General and Supplementary Registers and could, if desired, include the Rolls of the Central Midwives Boards, thus giving all nurses and midwives, on qualifying, equivalent status. As a result of a common training, impediments to mobility would be largely removed and the nursing fields would become more closely integrated, particularly the mental with the non-mental. Standards of training would tend to reach the same level and the prestige of certain branches of nursing which now enjoy less popularity would be increased. The training system as a whole would be greatly simplified and appre- ciable economy of nurse power might be effected. Finally, a more secure and uniform foundation would be laid for any future “ post-graduate ”’ studies. 145. We conclude :— (i) A two-year course of training for all nurses as outlined in this chapter should be instituted. (ii) There should be provisional registration at the end of two years subject ° to confirmation at the end of a year’s satisfactory practice under supervision. : (iii) There should be a uniform qualification and title for all nurses and a single Register. (iv) Consideration should be given to the application of the scheme to the training of midwives. | CHAP Tin ax Some Implications of the New Scheme of Training 146. If student nurses are to be treated as students, and the new training scheme successfully implemented, certain requirements must be met as indicated in the following paragraphs. Basic Conditions. Conditions must be such as to permit the planning and conduct of training courses unhampered by the staffing requirements of particular hospitals. It follows that there must be an adequate and stable domestic and nursing staff in whatever hospitals, wards or departments are used for training purposes, to perform the domestic duties now falling on the student, and to fill the gap created in the ward services by eliminating unnecessarily repetitive work. 147, The rotation through hospital wards and departments, or through other branches of nursing, must be dictated by the nurse’s needs as a student. A complete course of training must be laid down and adhered to, with teaching planned and continuous in all essential subjects and aspects of nursing, including systematised practice in techniques. The dissociation of training from staffing needs, which follows from the above, will place the student under the control of the training authority (see Chapter XIT) and not under that of the hospital. Senior nursing staff will exert authority over the student only in so far as this is necessary in the exercise of teaching functions or for the care of patients.