[Sidenote: (1.) Annual rise of Wages till the maximum of efficiency.]
(1.) That the wages of Nurses shall rise annually, for a definite
number of years, attaining their maximum, on an average, at the age
forty-five, when the Nurses are found to be most efficient.
[Sidenote: (2.) After five years’ Service Pension for Disability.]
(2.) That, after five years’ service, the Nurse shall, in the case of
ABSOLUTE DISABILITY, become entitled to a pension during the period of
her disability.
[Sidenote: (3.) Pension on a Scale graduated on the Wages.]
(3.) The pension will be on a scale graduated on the wages. It will be
twenty per cent. of the annual wages in the year of service, 5–6, and
the rate to be granted will rise progressively two per cent. per annum,
until the rate on the wages becomes seventy per cent.
[Sidenote: (4.) All Nurses to retire at Sixty.]
(4.) All Nurses will be placed on the Retired List at the age of
sixty.[16]
[Sidenote: (5.) Nurses to serve again who are Pensioned for Disability,
when Disability ceases before Sixty.]
(5.) Those Nurses who are pensioned at an earlier age, for disability,
will, if called upon, be liable to serve when that disability ceases,
or to forfeit their pension. They must therefore bring an annual
medical certificate of disability to the Superintendent-General, in
order to receive their pension.
[Sidenote: (6.) Nurses partially Disabled to receive partial Pension.]
(6.) Nurses who are partially disabled will only be entitled to
a certain proportion of the pension allowed in the scale, to be
determined, on representation made by the Superintendent-General.
[Sidenote: Example.]
Example.
COMPLETED YEARS
AGE. OF SERVICE. WAGES. PENSION.
30 0 £20? }
31 1 22 }
32 2 24 } Gratuity
33 3 26 }
34 4 28 }
----------------------------------------
35 5 30 × ·2 = £6
40 10 40 ·3 12
45 15 50 ·4 20
50 20 50 ·5 25
55 25 50 ·6 30
60 30 50 ·7 35
These principles, if admitted, would suggest the following heads for
regulations as to Nurses’ wages and pensions:--
[Sidenote: (1.) Amount of Wages, first year, £20.]
(1.) At whatever age a Nurse enters the service, the amount of wages
paid to her during her first year of service, will be £20.
[Sidenote: (2.) Annual rate of increase up to £50, when it ceases.]
(2.) There will be an annual rate of increase of wages equal to 10 per
cent, of the first year’s wages, until the yearly wages amount to £50,
beyond which there will be no further increase.
[Sidenote: (3.) No Pension till Ten Years’ Service completed, nor for
Disability till Five Years.]
(3.) A pension will be awarded for service to any Nurse, who may
retire, on account of age, at the expiry of ten full years’ service,
but in case of disability, a Nurse shall receive a pension after
five years’ service, or a gratuity, according to circumstances, if
discharged for disability, before she has completed five years of
service.
[Sidenote: (4.) Rate of Pension.]
(4.) Rate of Pension. The pension will be on a scale graduated on the
wages. It will be 30 per cent. of the wages received by the Nurse in
her tenth year of service, and the pension granted to Nurses who have
served more than ten years, will rise at the rate of 2 per cent. of the
wages for every additional year of service, until the pension amounts
to 70 per cent. of the wages received during the year preceding its
grant, beyond which no higher pension will be granted, except in cases
of special devotedness to the public service, when an addition to the
regulated rate of any pension may be granted on special recommendation,
made by the Superintendent-General of Nurses, setting forth the nature
of the service for which such augmented pension is to be granted.[17]
But no such pension shall exceed the amount of £50.
[Sidenote: (5.) Nurses, Pensioned for Disability, whose Disability
ceases, may be called on for Service.]
(5.) Any Nurse pensioned for disability, may be called on for service
in the event of such disability ceasing before the age of sixty, in
which case her wages will be the same as they would have been, had she
not been disabled.
(6.) Every Nurse who has completed her sixtieth year, must retire from
the service on her rate of pension.
(7.) Any Nurse, temporarily or permanently disabled in the service, who
has served more than five and under ten years, will be entitled to a
lower rate of pension, according to the circumstances of each case, as
represented by the Superintendent-General.
[Sidenote: 18. Number of Nurses to Patients.]
18. Nurses should be selected and appointed by the
Superintendent-General of Nurses for each General Hospital, in a
proportion not exceeding one nurse for every twenty-five cases.
There is nothing so fatal to discipline as to require by regulations
what it is known and admitted cannot be performed. Such rules are made
to be broken. Therefore, is it not better, instead of fixing a number
to fix a limit, and say “not exceeding one to every 25 or 30 patients,”
leaving it to the Superintendent-General to economize Nurses, and not
appoint the full number permitted, unless when really necessary? In one
case she might consider one nurse for fifty or even sixty sufficient;
in another, one for every twenty-five might be few enough. Why tie up
her hands against economy as well as against extravagance?