N.Z. Nurse Adviser At Big Mandalay Hospital

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27860, 7 January 1956, Page 2

N.Z. Nurse Adviser At Big Mandalay Hospital

NEWS FOR WOMEN

"I didn’t intend to go any further than England when I left Christchurch three years ago to see the Coronation." said Miss Mavis * McWhirter. a niece of Mrs W. Mackay (Rugby street), yesterday. Miss McWhirter has" visited 17 countries in the last three years, and Will leave Christchurch on February 6. after seven weeks’ vacation, to return to Mandalay, where she is a tutor sister on the staff of the World Health Organisation. Miss McWhirter trained at Dunedin Public Hospital, and before she left New Zealand was a tutor sister at the Oamaru Public Hospital. When she became a nurse with the World Health Organisation. after working in Canada and travelling through America, she spent two weeks at the Palais des Nations, the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations, as part of her briefing for a specialised branch of United Nations work. “Im ashamed to say I didn't know very much about the United Nations till I went to Geneva—there are so many aspects of the work apart from health." said Miss McWhirter yesterday. Miss Lyle Crellman. a Canadian. of Vancouver. British Columbia. Was in charge of the W.H.O. nursing division in Geneva, she said. New Zealanders Abroad In Geneva, she had visited Mr and Mrs John Woodward, two New Zealanders. said Miss McWhirter. Mr Woodward worked for one of the branches of the United Nations organisation. He was a brother of Miss Mary Woodward, who was “Miss New Zealand" a” few years ago. When she went to Delhi on the first Jtage of her journey to Mandalay, Miss McWhirter met another New Zealander. Mr Hopkirk, a personnel officer in the South-east Asia regional office m Delhi, which was the headquarters for her branch of the work in Mandalay. He had joined W.H O from Washington. His wife was also a New Zealander. When she left Europe for India, faid Miss McWhirter, there were two feet of snow on the ground. Her two weeks in Delhi gave her time to get warmed up before going to Mandalav. where the temperature was often lio ere Trees. •

Miss Doris Pederson. W.H.O. nursing adviser in South-east Asia, was a New Zealander, Miss McWhirter said. She had been in the islands before She was appointed to her present position in Delhi. “It made me proud to think so many New Zealanders , hoWln 2 these positions," said Miss McWhirter. Miss Alice Reid, who was lecturer at the post-graduate nurses’ school in Wellington when Miss McWhirter studied hospital administration there. Is nursing adviser for W.H.O. in the Western Pacific region. Rangoon Organisation Miss Helen Bolton, of Christchurch, who trained at the New Plymouth Hospital, had done a wonderful job organising a nursing division at the Rangoon General Hospital for the World Health Organisation, said Miss McWhirter. Rangoon was the air terminal for her on the last stage of her trip to Mandalav. Miss Bolton, with her W.H.O. assistants. had worked for three years in Rangoon training Burmese women Jo continue the work s he had started. She has drawn up all the rules for examination of nurses, and we have to work under rules she has drawn up. ’ said Miss ' McWhirter. Miss Bolton s system was much on the lines of the New Zealand nursing system. Burma was small and an agricultural community, and there was a great similarity to New Zealand: therefore the New Zealand svstem suited the people there. Miss Bolton had laid the foundation for the Burmese and international workers in the area for years to come. She would leave Rangoon this month for another W.H.O. assignment in Mauritius, said Miss McWhirter. two X,ther nursing sisters, Miss McWhirter is employed in Mandalav in a purely advisory capacity to try to organise a nursing school at the Mandalay General Hospital, which has 400 beds. She is in charge of this nursing service, and when she and her colleagues have completed their work, they will leave the field to the national workers they have trained. A medical - school was also started at the hospital recently. Recruiting ot Nurses Last year a number of junior girls were recruited for training as nurses, and there were now three times the number of recruits, said Miss McWhirter. She herself worked with ’Burmese girl who was a tutor sister. The Burmese girl had had three

months’ training at the Rangoon Hospital. “My main interest is general training. When I went there things were not organised. As tutor sister. I am .trying to give some sort of organised training. We managed to get a preliminary training school started, and nurses have three months’ preliminary training there before they start in the wards. They attend lectures which I give, and will be qualified nurses in three years’ time,” said Miss McWhirter. “The Burmese tutor sister attends the lectures. I don't have to repeat a set of lectures twice. The Burmese listens and repeats the lectures to other juniors.’’ Miss McWhirter said she had found this the best way to help the Burmese to learn the work they h<d to continue when she and her team left. Public Health Training The other two in her team were an Australian who was doing the midwifery side of the training for the World Health Organisation, and a girl from England, who concentrated on public health, she said. She en« deavoured to incorporate public health training with general health training. The Burmese nurses would then know something of the importance of public health.

There were several nurses in Rangoon doing the same sort of work, said Miss McWhirter. “The Burmese are very clean in themselves, and we don’t have to teach some of them a great deal about hygiene,” she added. When the W.H.O. teams had completed the training of Burmese workers, they went to other assignments. Miss McWhirter said. In her district of Northern Burma, for instance, the World Health Organisation had had a team to educate the Burmese in combating malaria. The international workers had now withdrawn, and the Burmese were continuing the work. A W.H.O. tuberculosis team had gone to Northern Burma about a year ago, and had set up a clinic in Mandalay, she said. The team had rounded up thousands of positive tuberculosis cases. This was the first tuberculosis project in Northern Burma. She thought the team would leave at the end of this year, when the Burmese would be sufficiently trained to follow up the contacts. The team had done similar work in Rangoon.

Malnutrition The World Health Organisation was onl l ??. e branch of thevUnited Nations, said Miss McWhirter. Nutritionists in Rangoon came under the Food and Agriculture Organisation. There was much malnutrition in Burma. Nutritionists were teaching the Burmese now to make the best use of the good food in their country. Miss McWhirter said many Burmese would not eat unpolished rice. In the polishing, the rice lost many healthgiving properties. Getting Burmese to dnnk milk was like getting children to drink castor oil. They wrinkled their noses m distaste and the act of dunking it seemed most repugnant to them. It was only a fad, and an endeavour would be made this year to S et children to drink milk. The United Nations Children's Fund was doing a magnificent work in the nutrition. said Miss McWhirter. It had sent barrels of powdered milk to Mandalay to be distributed this year. The milk would be mixed and distributed under superthe ch j ldren —mainly through the Mother and Child Health Clinics in Mandalay, which the midwifery tutor sister and public health tutor SlS j£ r had helped to organise. The Childrep’s Fund had given a am °unt of equipment for the Mandalay Hospital, including baby cots in the children’s wards, refrigerators for the maternity wards, all beds and lockers m the maternity wards, ana other equipment, she said. The Burmese were really grateful for all the assistance that was being given

She shared a house with the two mSv,- ? ur % r L g said Miss McWhirter. The house was low on the ground, which she did not think was wise because of the number of snakes in their compound. The Burmese lived in basha houses made of plaited bamboo. A dhobie collected the nurses’ washing and washed it either in a stream or in his shop, she said. The “shop’*" was in the main street, on a disused tramline, and it was amusing to see their dresses and other clothing hanging to dry on the main street. Burma was the land of golden pagodas, said Miss McWhirter. The domes of many of the pagodas were covered with gold leaf.