33. Too early for ... what ?

Key words/phrases: Teenage pregnancy rates, causes of, G.N.C age-related admission for training policy, Orthopaedic and Ophthalmic Nursing certficates, British Journal of Nursing, Cadet Nursing schemes, Miss Waugh, Miss Penney, N.W. Kent College of Technology.

No. 34

According to the latest statistics, teenage pregnancy rates in Dartford in 2005 were twice the national average with 10% of 15 to 17 year old girls on one housing estate being pregnant. In addition the figures for 2006 still appear to show that Britain had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe ?

Perhaps the situation has now improved by now with the opening of some new sexual health services for teenagers in Dartford but nonetheless the question remains: Why do these high levels of youthful pregnancy exist ?

Are these figures due to lack of parental supervision, lack of self-esteem among the teenage population, boredom, high levels of unemployment, lack of education in sexual matters and/or the lack of reproductive health facilities in Dartford?

Perhaps the simple answer is that there isn’t a simple answer ! Thus health care professionals, sociologists, teachers, psychologists and politicians will no doubt continue to try to get their advice and opinions heard, if for no other reason than that each high risk sexual encounter also carries with it the danger of developing sexually transmitted infections, regardless of the ages of the parties concerned.

But what has this to do with Joyce Green Hospital, do I hear you asking ?

Well nothing directly - although I have been wondering if it could be argued that the old G.N.C. policy (The General Nursing Council for England and Wales) on the age at which young men and women were permitted to begin training as a State Registered Nurses could have had an affect on at least one career- opportunity open to young people following the change the age limit in 1952 ?

Back in the 1950s and 1960s teenagers wishing to commence training for the Orthopaedic Nursing Certificate or their Ophthalmic nursing qualification could do so at the age of 17 years, whereas for those wanting to commence State Registration training, the starting age was 18 yrs old.

“Nothing new about that” I can almost hear some of you saying. These were simply the accepted ages for the commencement of nurse training in England and Wales.

But did you realise that in 1952 when the G.N.C. set these new age limits for youngsters wishing to embark upon a career in nursing some senior members of the profession were not at all happy about this decision by its Council members.

An editorial in The British Journal of Nursing (April 1952, No. 2204, Vol. 100) had this to say :

“Why may we ask - in all humility - has the age for commencing State Registration training been set at 18 years instead of 17 yrs or 32 yrs ? Perhaps Council members are under the impression that a female is not a woman until she is 18 years old and that prior to this the strain of training would be too much for her ? If this is the case, then might not Council be mistaken in under-estimating the physical propensities of young woman?”

The writer then went on to say this:

“Surely it is common knowledge that at 15 years of age a female is no longer a child and that according to Francis Parkington-Keyes, the author, ‘a young women is capable of coping with the complete experience of love and the ordeal of maternity, which in the flesh, represents the supreme fulfilment’”.

“This time lag,” (between leaving school and commencing training) the editorial writer went on to say, “can only have dire results for our hospitals. It is, after all, a well known fact that significant numbers of young women of 15 yrs enter the professional as Nursing Cadets … but that by the time they are 17yrs of age it is difficult - when they have found jobs in industry or elsewhere and have started to forge friendships - to get them to change direction and to enter a career such as nursing”.

It appears from this that some senior members of the nursing profession were of the opinion that IF girls of 15 years of age were physically mature enough to contemplate motherhood, they were surely equally ready to take on the responsibilities of careers in nursing, either as Student Nurses or Cadet Nurses.
As you know some hospitals or groups of hospitals did establish Cadet Nursing schemes .... with Miss Waugh and Miss Penney, the Matron and Assistant Matron, respectively, of Bow Arrow Hospital bringing up the rear-guard of the one organised within the Dartford hospitals in conjunction with the N.W. Kent College of Technology.

This scheme - and many others like it – certainly provided an access-to-nursing route for many teenagers of 16yrs of age in the 60s. However when this local scheme was discontinued perhaps the Dartford hospitals authority inadvertently closed a door which had previously provided numerous young women (and a small number of young men too) with a meaningful way of occupying themselves until they were eligible to apply to start training as Pupil Nurses or Student Nurses in Dartford or elsewhere ?

As a cadet nurse myself in the Dartford scheme not only did I gain a host of invaluable insights into the functioning of different hospital departments within Joyce Green, West Hill and Bow Arrow hospitals, as well as studying too for further G.C.E. examinations at the Miskin Road College several times a week, but I was also paid a small salary for doing so.

Thus on a personal note I really do believe that these ‘earlier access’ opportunities might, for certain young people, have provided a focus of attention for them that some people might now argue today’s youngsters no longer have.

What do you think ?