Levin institution well run

During summer vacation I worked [unclear: a] male nurse at the Levin Hospital Training School. On first [unclear: arri] at the hospital the most not feature is the well laid out [unclear: s]. The greater part of the [unclear: w] the grounds is done by some the patients who take a great [unclear: p] in the grounds.

There approximately 750 patients [unclear: e] hospital (about half male and [unclear: lf] female), their ages ranging [unclear: f] babies to old folk of 50 and although the greater portion [unclear: a] [unclear: aged] between two and 25. [unclear: They] in clean segregated villas, [unclear: ab] 40 patients in each villa. [unclear: T] villas are kept clean, by both [unclear: ff] and some patients who work [unclear: thin] the villas. Cooking for [unclear: t] more modern villas is done in a [unclear: ecial] mess hall, serving two [unclear: adja] villas. Facilities are extremely [unclear: odern] and are clean and [unclear: hygie] All other cooking is done in [unclear: he] Main Mess, and although eilities there are older they are clean and hygienic.

The [unclear: fo] plain, for the patients do not [unclear: h] sufficient intelligence to apprec [unclear: s] fancy meals, but it is wholesom and there is always plenty of it. On Christmas Day and New Year's Day a traditional meal was served, but very few patients realised the significance of it.

The children receive daily medical attention, and the staff show a real interest in the health and well being of the patients. I saw no instances of illness or disease that was ignored by the staff. Male patients (I had no contact with female patients) are showered and, if necessary, shaved daily. Patients who are not toilet trained—and this is probably about one-third of the patients, get a fresh set of clothes as soon as they need them, and every morning. All clothing is villa clothing and is kept clean and well mended. This clothing is slightly old-fashioned and does not give a patient any sense of separate identity, but to attempt this would be ridiculous, as few patients have sufficient intelligence to appreciate a so-called "separate identity."

In the hospital the children receive a high degree of love and affection from the staff, particularly the charge nurse in each villa. Not one patient expressed any feeling of homesickness, for they regard the hospital as home and find within the hospital the security that a normal child finds in his home. I do not think that the fact that the children receive love and attention can be overemphasised. It is the presence of this close relationship between staff and patients that enable staff to forget any differences between the patients and themselves and to treat the patients as normal human beings.

All the patients are extremely happy. The effect of physical maturity combined with the innocence and naivety of a four or five-year-old child produces an almost idealistic state. Because their minds are so young the children forget differences easily and live together extremely happily. Very rarely do they fight, and if there are fights they are usually between the relatively more intelligent patients.

John Saunders, a Victoria student, worked as a male nurse at the Levin Hospital and Training School over the vacation.

He says the hospital is well run and "the staff show a real interest in the health and wellbeing of the patients."

The happiness of the children and the special care and attention given to them by the staff impressed me most of all during my stay in the hospital. When I first arrived in the hospital I was shocked at some of the sights, particularly the bed patients, for there are degrees of deformity and mental deficiency that I had never imagined could exist. However. I very soon became accustomed to these sights and found the work most enjoyable. It is very rewarding to help these children, for it is so obvious that they need the help and obvious that they appreciate the attention being given to them.

That the standard of nursing is very high is best seen in ward Wanaka, where the bed patients are. These patients have extremely soft and unresisting skins which chafe and develop bed sores easily. These sores will develop particularly quickly if patients are left in wet sheets for very long. However, there were only two cases of bed sores while I was there. One of these cases was a bad case in which a patient who had been at home was badly covered in sores.

After only three weeks in the ward practically all his sores were cured. Working with the bed patients was the most enjoyable and rewarding part of the work in the hospital. They are utterly dependent on the staff, for they are completely incapable of doing anything for themselves. They must be fed, their beds changed, and most of them cannot even roll over in bed and so must be turned regularly. They are bathed daily and their teeth cleaned after the main meal. It is difficult to say whether they are happy or not as they have no way of communicating.

There can be only two criticisms of the Levin Hospital. Firstly, it is not big enough. Although present facilities are not overcrowded, they are undoubtedly being used to their fullest capacity. With a present roll of 750 and a waiting list of about that many it is clear that there is much work to be done in extending the existing facilities. There is sufficient land to do this, it can only be supposed that a lack of finance is the only barrier to extension.

The second criticism is that there is a severe lack of trained staff.