Maternity Nurse Appointment 1937

Taken from The Tuam Herald 25th September 1937

Filling Positions by promotion
Hospital & Dispensaries Committee
An interesting discussion on the responsibilities of nurses in the maternity Hospital attached to the Galway Central Hospital took place at the monthly meeting of the Galway Hospitals and Dispensaries Committee on Saturday Mr Eamon Corbett, Chairman presiding.

Maternity Nurse Appointment
The secretary (Mr Sean Gallagher) read a letter from the L.G.D. sanctioning the proposal of the Committee to fill the vacancy for a charge nurse in the Maternity Hospital by promotion from among the existing staff and stating the Nurse Elizabeth M Horan, one of the nurses in the hospital was not eligible.
Secretary: That leaves only two eligible – Nurses Naughton and Morrissey. The committee may now fill the vacancy.
Chairman: Has Dr. Morris expressed any opinion?. Secretary: He has not been asked yet.
It was decided to send for Dr. Morris and get his opinion on the candidates. When Dr Morris came before the Committee, the secretary explained the position to him.
Dr. Morris said that both Nurse Morrissey and Nurse Naughton were excellent official and were doing fine work in the hospital. At the same time, without casting any reflection whatever on them, he would like to point out that the appointment that the Committee were about to make was one of the most important in the institution. The Charge Nurse in a maternity hospital had an extremely responsible position as she has the care of two lives in every case under her charge. Nurses in the surgical or medical departments merely had to carry out the orders of the doctors, but it was quiet different in a maternity hospital. When he heard that Nurse Donnellan, was about to resign he was almost heartbroken, because she was a wonderful nurse and the hospital had improved while she was there. The conditions laid down in the advertisement when she was appointed were two years at least as head of a department in on outside hospital. Nurse Donnellan had that experience in the Rotunda. He would suggest that the terms of the advertisement should be also adhered to in this case. The number of patients had increased enormously during the past few years and there was now an average of 400 a year instead of about 50 a year some time ago.

Secretary – the difficulty in that a motion by Mr. Finnerty was seconded by Mr. Quinn and adopted that we fill the position by promotion and the department have now agreed to the procedure. This would mean that the vacancy be referred to the Appointments Commissioners.
Mr Finnerty – I don’t think Dr. Morris has any real objection to either of the nurses..
Dr. Morris – I have not, but if the Committee want my candid opinion, it’s that if the appointments were left to me tomorrow, I would try to get a nurse who had senior experience in an outside hospital.
Mr. Quinn – I seconded Mr. Finnerty the last day, but I only did it because this is about the only authority we had left and I understand we intended to take advantage of it on all occasions. However, now that I have heard Dr. Morris’s advice, I would not be inclined to insist on filling the vacancy ourselves. I am sure that we would have acted differently on the last day if we had the benefit of Dr. Morris’s advice.
Dr. Morris – As a matter of fact, Dr. Fallon advised me to come before the Committee, But I did not like to, because I was afraid it might be impertinence on my part to approach you before I was sent for.
Mr. Beegan – Indeed Dr. Morris’s advice is very welcome and in view of what we have heard, I think it would not be advisable for us to go ahead with the promotion in this case. We should try and get the best qualified nurse in the country for this important position and if we fail to do that, we will be undertaking a very grave responsibility.
Secretary – Then I suppose I can take that the order will be “Having heard Dr. Morris, the Committee decided to refer the matter to the Local Appointments Commissioners, the terms of the advertisement to be the same as in the previous vacancy.”
The Committee agreed that this order covered the position.

Doctor’s Salary Increased
The following notice of motion stood on the agenda in the name of Mr. M. O’Regan; – “That the question of granting an adequate increase in the salary of Dr. Morris, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist of the Maternity Department of the Central Hospital be considered that, if so decided on the amount of such increase be there and then fixed.”
Mr. O’Regan formally moved the motion and said it was some years since Dr. Morris’s present salary had been given to him. They had already heard from the doctor that the amount of extra work he had to do and he (Mr. O’Regan) thought he would be entitled to an adequate increase in proportion to the extra work. They were all aware that he was a very able man and had a most responsible position.
Secretary – He had £250 a year at present. How much of an increase do you propose? “It was unanimously decided to increase Dr. Morris’s salary. By £50 per annum, Mr O’Regan amending his proposal accordingly.”

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