From the Viewpoint of the Registry

Abstract

IT may be assumed that we are all agreed that hourly nursing is a partial solution to the ever recurring problem of our past Biennials that of meeting the nursing needs of our large middle-class population. It is also the most promising gesture toward answering the questions involved in the economics of nursing; that is, the best distribution of nursing care, and we are agreed that it must be offered as an organized service. Apparently the questions we now want answered are: How and with what organization shall the hourly service be established? and Who shall give this service so as to best reach the largest number of patients? Heretofore in our plans and policies offering organized hourly nursing, we have gone along the line of least resistance. We have accommodated ourselves to the means at hand, by using the local visiting nurse association for the direction and distribution of the service. We have naturally accepted conclusions offered us by speakers at previous Biennials, and built on these conclusions; they were conclusions reached by those who were authorities on nursing affairs. I am thinking especially of a paper read at the last Biennial on The Larger Problem of Community Nursing, and of the very interesting and exhaustive report we heard at the International Conference of Nurses on the Economics of Nursing. Quoting from the first mentioned article, two important points necessary to consider in establishing this service: