Report of the Working Party on the Recruitment and Training of Nurses.

Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Working Party on the Recruitment and Training of Nurses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    future if a common basic training is introduced for mental and non-mental nurses alike. 10. Role of the mental nurse. The problem of nursing the mentally disordered or defective is, in some respects, similar to that of nursing the chronic sick. In the mental hospitals most of the patients suffer from some form of chronic mental sickness. ‘Though the proportion so afflicted is gradually diminishing, there are still some nine certified to every one voluntary patient resident in the mental hospitals, though admissions now are about evenly divided as between certified and voluntary patients. The ratio of discharges to admissions shows a promising _trend. In the five years 1934-1938, the number of discharges* was about 58 per cent. of admissions ; in the seven years 1939-1945, the proportion rose to about 66 per cent. The difference cannot, however, be attributed definitely to improve- ments in technique, since so many complicating factors are operative, e.g., earlier admission. 11. In the institutions for the mentally defective, the functions of the nurse are unique. The vast majority of patients are “‘ chronic ” in the sense that they suffer from some inborn or acquired defect of the mind (and often of body as well) which is, in the present state of knowledge, irremediable. ‘The nurse’s task here is to act as the custodian of the ineducable low-grades, idiots and imbeciles, and to assist in the training and supervison of the higher grade feeble-minded. 12. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the usefulness of a mentally trained nurse is limited to institutional work: there is a place for her in the public health field hardly less important. The mentally trained nurse, like the public health nurse, should have a part to play in reducing the amount of chronic incapacity in the working population. The Feversham Committeet estimated, on the basis of Scottish experience, that some 50 per cent. of chronic incapacity in the insured population is due wholly or in part to mental or “ nervous ” causes. From other authoritative sources we reach estimates of a similar order of magnitude. For example, according to a Committee of the British Medical Association, in any random group of sick persons nearly a third “suffer from conditions about which it is helpful to have psychiatric advice and a considerable proportion will be found to be in need of treatmentt.” The mentally trained nurse can hardly fail to have a valuable function in the presence of a problem of such magnitude. She also has a useful role to play in dealing with the so-called “ social problem group ”’, which includes in its ranks many who are mentally subnormal. 13. The recent survey§ of the mental health services by Dr. C. P. Blacker takes the view (p.46) that the future of the psychiatric services in this country will depend almost as much on the selection and training of mental nurses as on * Excluding transfers. + “The Voluntary Mental Health Services.”” Report of the Feversham Committee. London. 1939. The Committee based their estimate on “ Reports on Incapacitating Sickness in the Insured Population,” issued by the Department of Health for Scotland. The Scottish figures relate to 1-75 million insured persons, yielding 30,000 cases with an aggregate of 11 million days of incapacity. + “Report of the Committee on Mental Health”’ appointed by the British Medical Association, 1941, § C. P. Blacker, Neurosis and the Mental Health Services, with a foreword by Sir Wilson Jameson. London. Oxford University Press. 1946.