Annual report : 1942 / Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York.

  • Society of the Lying-In Hospital of the City of New-York.
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1942 / Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/44 (page 12)
    REPORT OF NURSING ACTIVITIES The year 1942 has been one of constant change and adjust¬ ment coincident with the country’s change from a peace to a wartime economy. Our chief preoccupation has been the main¬ tenance of a safe standard of service with an ever decreasing nursing staff as more and more withdrew for military or other duty. Twenty-eight who left during the year are located at military hospitals in this country or are serving the fighting forces abroad. Nine of these are in the Ninth General Hospital stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Four are with army units in Africa. Resignations reduced the number of graduate nurses on the staff by 32 per cent during the year and by the end of 1942 the total staff, including both professional and sup¬ plementary workers, showed a decrease of 25 per cent. The numerical reduction has been perhaps of less significance than the change in composition. The employment of practical nurses, begun in 1941, has steadily increased and additional attendants have been appointed. Resignations from the latter group were showing a decided tendency to rise by the end of the year, a matter for serious consideration owing to the basic nature of their work in the program of patient care. Whereas the budget provides that graduate nurses comprise 81 per cent of the staff, at the end of the year only 52 per cent of the reduced staff were graduate nurses. The greatest problems have been due to the loss of our older nurses who were well acquainted with the routines and pro¬ cedures of the department. Formerly, the great majority of staff members had been with us from three to ten years. By the end of 1942, thirty-eight of our sixty-seven graduates had been employed less than a year and thirty-two of that number less than six months. The difficulty of maintaining established nursing procedures and administrative policies under these con¬ ditions is apparent, and great credit is due the head nurses and supervisors who have held to their standards, patiently and conscientiously introducing and supervising an ever changing group. Fortunately, the change has been fairly gradual and has allowed some time for psychological as well as physical adjust- [12]