No Upgrading For The Nurses
pp. 47-49 · Read in the full issue
From a Pago correspondent
A highly-controversial Senate Bill, c se by the Legislature of AmerihaS u n^ t Wlt h IPP T V°? * ron ] Department of interior and has been vetoed by He governors office in Pago Pago. 6 * • t , ed f° r the ion or a special class of Samoan urses who would be known as American Samoa Registered Jurses”. The bestowing of this title 'as one of the isiues in las® )ctober’s three-week n,,r W it that timp mnrp tho iln S c Stnke ’ ractical f l 5 ° S “ t r . 8 wa |hed off their jobs t Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical ledical Centre causing serious nursrig service shortages in American ’ amoa -
Due to the nature of the dispute, Governor John M. Haydon promised to sen d the matter to the Depart ment of Interior for resolution. In late March, Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton recommended that the bill be vetoed and Acting Governor Frank C. Mockler slapped on the veto. 1 r , , Opposition also came from the A merlca " N “ rses Association which 18 a natlonal organisation of regis tered an d practical nurses which sets nursing standards in the United States and several territories, T u- * , .. e
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(Continued p 47)
All diplomatic roads lead to the Islands these days as the Island territories become masters in their own houses. The Island govern ments have been entertaining a procession of foreign ambassadors recently, as witness the two pic tures above. In the top picture PNG’s Minister for Defence and Foreign Relations , Mr Albert Maori Kiki, farewells the Russian Ambassador, Mr D. Musin, after the latter’s visit to Port Moresby.
Mr Musin is the Russian Am bassador to Australia. Another Ambassador to Australia, the Egyptian Ambassador Mr Ahmed Marzouk, is seen in the lower picture presenting his credentials as Egypt’s man in Fiji to Fiji’ > Governor-General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau.
Nurses'reputation
“American Samoa Registered Nurse” would . . indicate licensure by examination as the result of qualified education and skills”. He suggested that American Samoa’s nursing school be upgraded so that Samoan nurses might meet the standards of the American Nurses’ Association.
In the strike the Samoan practical nurses requested that examinations for the title of American Samoan Registered Nurse be waived for nurses with a number of years of experience.
The Assistant Solicitor of the De partment of Interior’s Office of Territories, C. Brewster Chapman, Jr, pointed out that the term Regis tered Nurse is a well-established and widely-known title and that the prac tical nurses in American Samoa “do not meet the standards and quali fications universally associated with that title”, Brewster pointed out that the use of the term Registered Nurse by the American Samoan practical nurses would “impair the high reputation that has been attached to the pro fession of registered nursing” and that “it would also permit the in ference that nurses, lacking the pre requisite qualifications for such a title, actually have them”.
Speaking for the American Nurses’
Association, Executive Director Eileen M. Jacobi, said that all the states and most of the territories of the United States use the American Nurses’ Association standard exam inations as a basis for acquiring the title of Registered Nurse and Prac tical Nurse. American Samoa, ac cording to Jacobi, used the ANA’s examination for practical nurse licensure from 1960 until 1962.
“It was discontinued”, she said, “because it became painfully obvious that the educational programme offered at that time was not equiva lent to the practical nursing pro gramme offered in the other juris dictions”.
In the association’s letter to Sec retary Morton asking for his veto of the bill, Jacobi said, “The residents of American Samoa are as much en titled to high-quality nursing care as are residents of other jurisdictions of the United States. Bestowing the title ‘American Samoa Registered Nurse’ is not the way to achieve this quality”.
American Samoa’s nursing pro gramme, which is run by the Depart ment of Medical Service, was re cently shortened to a two-year pro gramme, from the previous three
year programme. Graduates are practical nurses.
It was not known at the time of writing what the reaction to Morton’s veto recommendation would be, but the American Samoan Nurses Association was holding meetings in late March.
First GNP figures
for American Samoa
The American Samoa Govern ment has released the first figures on the territory’s Gross National Product. Art Westervelt, head of the Tax Division, said the report was
“the first such attempt to determine a Gross National Product for the territory”.
The total GNP in 1973 was slightly over SUSI4I million of which $64 million was generated by cannery operations, by far the larg est employers outside the govern ment. More than $34 million was generated by the government. The GNP per head was more than $5,000.
The report also pointed out that the average wage earner in Ameri can Samoa makes over $3,000 per year. Over half those employed in American Samoa in 1973 worked for the government.