BRITISH NURSES’ TARNISHED

THE TOWNSMAN, Thursday June 16, 1977, PAGE 7

IMAGE

No more Florence Nightingales

LONDUN (euter) —
Stories of patients at risk
-because of staff shortages in
British hospitals is

_ jeopardizing the future of
nursing here. :

The nurses’ image as
angels of mercy is becoming
increasingly tarnished as
overwork and underpay
lead to dissatisfaction and a
feeling that their job has
been devalued to the point
where they have become the
slaves of the medical
profession.

One nurse said, ‘We go to
meals feeling wil ny:
wondering what will have
happened when we get
back."

A grim picture of: the

present standard of nursing.

care in Britain has been
painted by the Royal College
of Nursing (RCN). In a
nationwide survey on the
effects of reductions in
government spending on the

th service, they said
that standards had fallen in
the last 30 years, leaving
patients sometimes
dangerously at risk.

The survey

quoted_

“DADDY LONG LEGS”. -
Fred Astalre, Leslie Caron,
Terry Moore, Thelma Ritter,
Fred Clark. Milllonaire playboy
arranges fo send a lovely
French orphan to college in
Massachusetts. He Is to be her
sponsor, with his identity a well-
kept secret. Love upsets the
applecart. Ballets by Roland

it.

“THE HORIZONTAL
LIEUTENANT” - Jim Hutton,
Paula Prentiss, Jack Carter,
Jim Gackus. Bungling young
lleutenant Is ordered to find the
Japanese outlaw who has been
falding Army supplies on an
obscure island in the pacific. An
Oriental alda and 8 gorgeous
nurse help him pull through
with “Allssion accomplished.”

“MAGNIFICENT MAGICAL
MAGNET OF SANTA MESA” -
Freddie Griffith (Michael
Burns) invents a disc that
solves many energy problems
and wants fo donate his in-
vention to mankind. His em-
ployer sees the financial
potential of his discovery and
decides to elfhar change his
mind for him or get rid of him.
Harry Morgen, Tom Poston,

Conrad Janis and Jane Connell.

ere featured. - -

“BONNIE AND McCLOUD” .
McCloud’s (Dennis Weaver)
romance with modal Bonnie
Foster: (Leigh Tayler-Young)
becomes a nightmare when she
shoots a trucking executive.
Tha victim's cronies chase the
palr across the country, using
CB radios to communicate. J.D.
Cannon and Terry Carter are
featured. 7

“THE LEFT HAND OF
GOD”. Humphry Sagart, Gene
Tierney, Lee J. Cobb, Agness
Moorehead, E.G. Marshall.
Directed by Edward Dmytryk.
China-1947; American ad-
venturer escapes a Chinese
warlord by posing as 4 priest;
only to fall in love with o
_ Mlssion nurse.

«. “happy ending’ - Stars Jean

Simmona, Shirley. Jones, Joha
Forsythe. Lioyd @ridges,
“Nanette Fabray. Olrector:
Richerd Brooks. An original
contemporary drama about
married love.

examples of wards left in.

the charge of untrained staff
and a decline in supervision
leading to more accidents,
missed treatment, ‘broken
bones, suicide attempts and
fire risks.

PATIENTS UNTENDED
* It cited cases where old
patients, who fell out of bed,
were left on the floor for
hours. Many incidents were

quoted where untrained.

auxiliaries, in charge of
wards all night, often were
responsible for adminis-
tering drugs to 43 many as
100 patients. Sometimes the
wrong medicines were given

Famit

TORONTO (CP) — The
struggle family. planners
had in India is 3 r to
that of family planners in
Canada, says Elfriede
Vembu-Conrad, who lived in
India during the early days
via that country’s family

inning program.

Mrs. Vembu-Conrad, now
almost 80, who lived in
Bombay when the first
family p ies Were

ned, is ting a book
er Our tow progress in th

“ OW progress in the

was due to the
shyness of the In-
diannwomen to come for-
ward for advice,” she said.
“And there was also the
ucity of contraceptives

ring the war years.”

or else delays occurred
which would be crucial.

One hospital reported an
accident rate twice as high
.in 1976 as in the previous
year through lack of patient
observation. At a mental
hospital, entire wards were
left unstaffed at night, the
report said. .

‘The RCN are concerned
not only over the present
situation but for the future.
Far fewer student nurses
were being taken on for
training.
Nurses

today are

Spending more time on.

Paper work and new
methods of treatment de-

Born in ‘Germany, she

married an engineer of

mand more of their time. In-
creasing stress on nurses is

‘causing more absences
through sickness, the report
said.

The nurses’ ¢urrent rate
of pay is unlikely to
encourage more
recruitment into the pro-
fession, A staff nurse
qualified for three years
earns roughly $4,250 a year
or $59.90 a week after tax,
TYPISTS EARN MORE

If the same girl had
learned shorthand and
typing she would be working
in a clean, modern office in
the centre of London with
regular hours, free lunches

SLOW PROGRESS

y planning in India ~

10 pregnancies but with only’
three or four children

Indian origin and lived for 36 living
years in Bombay.

She said she started her
volunteer work in ‘family
planning when she saw ‘so
many women losing their
children, having as many as’

The suceess of her group
came when it convinced the
then Indian Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru that it liga
was time for India to,

SUNDAY

3&6.

and about $34 dollars a week
more pay. ;

Sister Magda‘ Campion, a
Manchester - nurse for 11
years, said: “I think nurses
are discontented because of
the lack of staff. and their
increasing work load, It’s
the frustration of not being
able to. do their work.
properly which gets nurses
down.”

Nurses say their last pay
raise in 1974 made the
situation worse because it
wags not properly financed
and authorities reduced
nursing hours in order to
pay the bills. -

develop a population policy.

As an Indication of the
program’s success, she:
quoted from a recent Indian
government report thatsays |
122.23 million vasectomies
and 4.4 million tubal
tions were performed in
India between 1965 and 1975.

OC ‘have a

nice weekend...

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