The reasonable principle I believe to be, 1, to begin improving the wages at as early a period as possible; 2, to let them increase till the Nurse reaches her maximum of efficiency; and, 3, after that to make no more increase.
By rate of Wages to retain those who are efficient.
Because the object is to induce the young and efficient women to stay, not the old ones. They will stay long enough, because the old ones nobody else will take.
By rate of Pension to reward those who have been efficient.
The rate of pension ought, on the other hand, to increase with the number of years’ service, and continue increasing till the end. The principle of pensioning is different from that of wages. After the woman has reached her maximum of efficiency, which certainly will be not later than forty-five, probably not later than forty years of age, the inducement to stay should be the improvement of pension. This compensates for any apparent injustice in the first principle towards an old servant.
Civil Service an Example.
No other system appears to be founded on common sense; and it is one generally acknowledged in the Civil Service, where salaries are made to rise as soon as possible. Military Hospitals must not be made training schools for Nurses; else it would be better to admit them much younger than at the age of thirty years.
Opinion as to Wages and Pensions.
If a Nurse cannot enter the Service till after she is thirty, the majority will no doubt be some years above thirty when they enter, say an average of thirty-five; and five years appear a very long probation for a person at that age before increase of wages begins. In most cases, in Civil Departments, there is only one year of such probation before increase begins, though the persons are much younger when they enter. A maximum might be fixed, beyond which the wages should not rise, and when the increase of pension would be sufficient inducement to remain. Very few Nurses can be expected to continue really efficient till sixty years of age; but it is often difficult to say that a person is disabled, though she may have become less active and efficient. If there is no retiring allowance there will be great reluctance to dismiss her, and it might, in that case, be cruel. The better plan would be to promise a small pension after ten or twelve years’ service, on a scale so graduated thereafter as to offer an inducement to remain, at the same time that it would afford facility for enforcing retirement without injustice. This would be economy. The “Nursing Sisters” grant £20 after twelve years’ service.