View report page

The problem is not peculiar to the locality, but does seem to be intensified
in West Ham. This perhaps is partly because of the character of the district, and
partly because the borough did not have a Queen's Nurses home with trained staff on
which to build the service.
There is an increasing demand for trained nurses which cannot be met from the
supply available. With the advances in medical treatment, the type of domiciliary
nursing required has changed and is now largely confined to the care of the chronic
sick and elderly. This may not appeal to the highly trained nurse, and it may be that
in the immediate future we should consider the employment of attendants to cater for the
simpler needs of the elderly and chronic sick, thus freeing the trained personnel for
the more specialised nursing tasks. The nursing organisations are fully alive to the
need for a comprehensive nursing service and much thought and discussion is being given
to this subject on a national level. Various ways of combining the nurse's responsibilities
in the promotion of health with her duties in the care of the sick are being tried in
many areas, both urban and rural. The object is to achieve a service which meets the
needs of the community and, at the same time, provides the nurse with a satisfying career.
We are paying close attention to these discussions and experiments in the hope that we
may learn something which will benefit our own nursing service.
68