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Recruitment of nurses
MAY
PUBLIC HEALTH intervals over a period of nine months to obtain a positive result. Acute enteric carriers during convalescence rarely persisted for more than three months. Their retention in hospital must depend on their occupation and their intelligence. Referring to the laboratory control of diphtheria, the speaker emphasised the importance of obtaining swabs from both nose and throat in every suspected case. He also mentioned that in adult carriers of this disease the Corynebacterium dip~heriae could often be found in fissures round the finger nails. Dr. Maitland began his remarks by pointing out that a public health department was able to exercise only a very small degree of control over many communicable diseases--e.g., measles, influenza: cerebrospinal fever, and scarlet fever--that this service was still working on antiquated and fanciful rules, and that sweeping reforms were needed. He advocated increased technical control in order to speed up these reforms. Diphtheria immunisation was first introduced in certain administrative districts of England and Wales about fifteen years ago, but it had needed the stimulus of war conditions to initiate a campaign for its general adoption. Dr. Maitland also thought that a more rational view was needed on the identity of scarlet fever. At the present time the determining factor was not the causal organism but the presence or absence of a rash.
NORTHERN BRANCH Pr#ddcnt : Dr. James Grant (M.0.H., Gateshead C.B.) Hon.Secretary : Dr. J. A. Charles (M.O.H., lqewcastle-onTyne C.B.). A meeting of the Northern Branch was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on January 18th. The President was in the chair and 21 other members were present. The minutes of the meeting held on November 16th, 1940, were read, confirmed, and signed by the Chairman.
Noah Eastern Regional Hospitals Advisory Council The honorary Secretary informed the meeting that the Medical Advisory Committee of the above Council had invited the Northern Branch of the Society to nominate three representatives to serve on the Committee. It was decided to appoint representatives at the next meeting of the Branch. Mr. G. F. Rowbotham, F.R.C.S., delivered an address on head injuries in peace and war, and on the motion of Dr. Inn McCracken, seconded by Dr. John Walker, Mr. Rowbotham was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his interesting and informative paper. i
I ~ C R U I T M E N T OF NURSES Miss Florence Horsbrugh, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, and Miss Watt, Chief Nursing Officer of the Division of Nursing, recently met the Council of the Royal College of Nursing, when Miss Horsbrugh outlined the short- and long-term policies of the Government with regard to nurse recruitment. She was chiefly concerned, she said, with ways of interesting the thinking girl in nursing as a career, not with finding temporary labour. The short152
age of nurses had not been due to fewer candidates coming forward for a calling which had lost its popularity, but to the immensely increased demand for their services, as witness the figures of nurses taking the State examinations. In 1926, 6,000 nurses sat for the preliminary and 4,200 for the finals. In 1937 the figures were 9,600 and 9,500 respectively. In 1940-a war year--the figures for the Preliminary State Examination were 11,761. The Athlone Committee had been set up to deal, among other things, with the shortage of nurses before the war, but unfortunately its work had been interrupted. The decision of the General Nursing Council to "bridge the gap" had been a valuable recruitment measure which the speaker hoped to see developed. Now, however, the shortage had been still ftlrther intensified by war needs, to meet which the Civil Nursing Reserve had been established. Miss Horsbrugh considered that the Reserve had done good work in persuading an increasing number of nursing auxiliaries to take up regular training, though she had made it clear that time spent as a nursing auxiliary would not count towards such training. She urged Council members to continue recruiting through the usual channels and only to regard the proposed •Government "pool" as supplementary. Girls recruited through the Labour Exchanges would be referred to the county or county borough medical officers, and linked to the machinery of the Civil Nursing Reserve through the local emergency committees, on all of which local matrons were represented. On the occasion of his retirement from the post of M.O.H. of Blackpool, which he had occupied for g2 years, Dr. E. W. Rees-Jones has been presented with a silver salver by the Blackpool and Fylde division of the B.M.A. He had previously been presented with a silver tea service from the Blackpool Health Committee, a silver salver from the chief officers of the corporation, and a standard lamp and a wireless set from the members of his staff.
RECENT APPOINTMENTS IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE The following are some recent appointments to the health departments of various local authorities. The Editor will be grateful if members of the Society will notify him at once of any new appointments. BRXDGWATERM.B. & R.D.: M.O.H., Dr. George Haig Pringle (Dep. M.O.H. & S.M.O., Worthing M.B.). Salary £800, rising to £900. I - h ~ o w U.D.: A.R~P. M.O., Dr. S. IL Mackay. Salary £600 p.a. HOaNS~ M.B.: Deputy M.O.H., Dr. Marian Lones (A.M.O.H., Hornsey). Salary £625, rising to £725 p.a. PONT~DAWE R.D.: Temp. M.O.H., Dr. H. J. Griffiths. SALFOaV C.B.: M.O.H., Dr. J. L. Burn (M.O.H., Barnsley M.B.). Salary £1,200, rising to £1,405. WESTON-SUPER-MARE M.B.: A.M.O.H., Dr. Kath!een M. Ball (A.M.O.H., Shrewsbury M.B.).
PUBLIC HEALTH intervals over a period of nine months to obtain a positive result. Acute enteric carriers during convalescence rarely persisted for more than three months. Their retention in hospital must depend on their occupation and their intelligence. Referring to the laboratory control of diphtheria, the speaker emphasised the importance of obtaining swabs from both nose and throat in every suspected case. He also mentioned that in adult carriers of this disease the Corynebacterium dip~heriae could often be found in fissures round the finger nails. Dr. Maitland began his remarks by pointing out that a public health department was able to exercise only a very small degree of control over many communicable diseases--e.g., measles, influenza: cerebrospinal fever, and scarlet fever--that this service was still working on antiquated and fanciful rules, and that sweeping reforms were needed. He advocated increased technical control in order to speed up these reforms. Diphtheria immunisation was first introduced in certain administrative districts of England and Wales about fifteen years ago, but it had needed the stimulus of war conditions to initiate a campaign for its general adoption. Dr. Maitland also thought that a more rational view was needed on the identity of scarlet fever. At the present time the determining factor was not the causal organism but the presence or absence of a rash.
NORTHERN BRANCH Pr#ddcnt : Dr. James Grant (M.0.H., Gateshead C.B.) Hon.Secretary : Dr. J. A. Charles (M.O.H., lqewcastle-onTyne C.B.). A meeting of the Northern Branch was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on January 18th. The President was in the chair and 21 other members were present. The minutes of the meeting held on November 16th, 1940, were read, confirmed, and signed by the Chairman.
Noah Eastern Regional Hospitals Advisory Council The honorary Secretary informed the meeting that the Medical Advisory Committee of the above Council had invited the Northern Branch of the Society to nominate three representatives to serve on the Committee. It was decided to appoint representatives at the next meeting of the Branch. Mr. G. F. Rowbotham, F.R.C.S., delivered an address on head injuries in peace and war, and on the motion of Dr. Inn McCracken, seconded by Dr. John Walker, Mr. Rowbotham was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his interesting and informative paper. i
I ~ C R U I T M E N T OF NURSES Miss Florence Horsbrugh, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, and Miss Watt, Chief Nursing Officer of the Division of Nursing, recently met the Council of the Royal College of Nursing, when Miss Horsbrugh outlined the short- and long-term policies of the Government with regard to nurse recruitment. She was chiefly concerned, she said, with ways of interesting the thinking girl in nursing as a career, not with finding temporary labour. The short152
age of nurses had not been due to fewer candidates coming forward for a calling which had lost its popularity, but to the immensely increased demand for their services, as witness the figures of nurses taking the State examinations. In 1926, 6,000 nurses sat for the preliminary and 4,200 for the finals. In 1937 the figures were 9,600 and 9,500 respectively. In 1940-a war year--the figures for the Preliminary State Examination were 11,761. The Athlone Committee had been set up to deal, among other things, with the shortage of nurses before the war, but unfortunately its work had been interrupted. The decision of the General Nursing Council to "bridge the gap" had been a valuable recruitment measure which the speaker hoped to see developed. Now, however, the shortage had been still ftlrther intensified by war needs, to meet which the Civil Nursing Reserve had been established. Miss Horsbrugh considered that the Reserve had done good work in persuading an increasing number of nursing auxiliaries to take up regular training, though she had made it clear that time spent as a nursing auxiliary would not count towards such training. She urged Council members to continue recruiting through the usual channels and only to regard the proposed •Government "pool" as supplementary. Girls recruited through the Labour Exchanges would be referred to the county or county borough medical officers, and linked to the machinery of the Civil Nursing Reserve through the local emergency committees, on all of which local matrons were represented. On the occasion of his retirement from the post of M.O.H. of Blackpool, which he had occupied for g2 years, Dr. E. W. Rees-Jones has been presented with a silver salver by the Blackpool and Fylde division of the B.M.A. He had previously been presented with a silver tea service from the Blackpool Health Committee, a silver salver from the chief officers of the corporation, and a standard lamp and a wireless set from the members of his staff.
RECENT APPOINTMENTS IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE The following are some recent appointments to the health departments of various local authorities. The Editor will be grateful if members of the Society will notify him at once of any new appointments. BRXDGWATERM.B. & R.D.: M.O.H., Dr. George Haig Pringle (Dep. M.O.H. & S.M.O., Worthing M.B.). Salary £800, rising to £900. I - h ~ o w U.D.: A.R~P. M.O., Dr. S. IL Mackay. Salary £600 p.a. HOaNS~ M.B.: Deputy M.O.H., Dr. Marian Lones (A.M.O.H., Hornsey). Salary £625, rising to £725 p.a. PONT~DAWE R.D.: Temp. M.O.H., Dr. H. J. Griffiths. SALFOaV C.B.: M.O.H., Dr. J. L. Burn (M.O.H., Barnsley M.B.). Salary £1,200, rising to £1,405. WESTON-SUPER-MARE M.B.: A.M.O.H., Dr. Kath!een M. Ball (A.M.O.H., Shrewsbury M.B.).