Conference On Nursing Administration In Asia

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29725, 19 January 1962, Page 2

Conference On Nursing Administration In Asia

Steps towards progress in nursing administration in South-east Asia were taken at a World Health Organisation conference on nursing in Ceylon from November 20 to December 2, according to the matron of Princess Margaret Hospital, Miss J. Taylor, who was nursing administration consultant to the conference.

Miss Taylor said yesterday that one of the main conclusions reached was that the most satisfactory method was to have a nurse in charge of nurses in all hospitals, nursing schools, and at state and government levels where nurses were represented.

In reaching these conelusions, the conference had fulfilled its three objectives. Miss Taylor said. They were to provide guiding principles for setting nursing administration on a sound basis; to set up guide lines to prepare prospective nursing executives to fill such posts, which would include a full education programme beginning early in student nursing training; and to suggest other areas for research or further conferences. At all levels of administration, some educational preparation and practical experience would be required. Miss Taylor has written a report on the conference for the World Health Organisation, which will be circulated among the countries represented. If recommendations made in the report are accepted, Miss Taylor believes the status of nursing in those countries would be improved. Common Problems It was a working conference where final decisions resulted from group discussions, she said. Its main advantages had been in the opportunity for a representative group to meet and discuss their problems, which were surprisingly common among the delegates, and in the pooling of ideas. Four countries sent doctors as representatives—Afghanistan, Burma, Ceylon, and India. They were actual members of the conference study groups, and in their final evaluations, each . said that their ideas on nursing administration had changed in that time, and that they expected to practise some of the recommendations on returning to their countries. Among the delegates were three from Burma, two from Thailand, two from Indonesia, five from India, three from Ceylon, and three from Afghanistan, one of whom was a male nurse. Several observers from the host country were present, the plenary sessions being open to members of the medical and nursing professions. Miss Taylor, who was away from New Zealand for three months and a half, toured the countries represented before the conference, to gain an idea of their peculiar problems. She was able to discuss these problems with senior nurses, some of whom worked at government level, and had interviews with ministers of health and directorsgeneral of health. After seeing representative areas of hospital and public health nursing, Miss Taylor said that the standard of nursing education was quite high. India now had a master's degree available, and several countries had education programmes for bachelors' degrees ir. nursing. Nursing administration in hospitals was improving as the result of preparation for it being offered in postgraduate programmes. Over-crowding Hospitals in South-east Asian countries were generally making the most of great difficulties, she said. They were grossly over-crowded, one 800-bed hospital she saw having 1900 patients. The families of patients played a greater part in hospital life

than they did in New Zealand —visiting was freer because of travelling difficulties and nursing shortages. In some places where there was a great staff short-

age, it was usual for patients to have at least one visitor in constant attendance day and night. For this reason, one of the recommendations made at the conference was that nurses be prepared for more home nursing, and that public health nursing be included

in the basic curriculum in those areas. “It is neither possible nor desirable to bring all the sick to hospital, away from their home environments,'' Miss Taylor said.

“Fairly Secure”

Nurses were in a fairly secure position compared with other persons in Southeast Asia. Their salaries and training conditions generally compared well with those in New Zealand. But Miss Taylor felt that their opportunities for higher training in their own areas were greater than in this country. Some would go to India for postgraduate work, and in the majority of countries some type of post-graduate work was available at certificate level. But any girl with promise was usually sent to America to take a master’s degree if a bachelor degree was all that was available in her area, and if she was being prepared for a senior post. Scholarships were available under the Colombo Plan, the World Health Organisation, and Rockefeller grants for higher nursing education. “These developing countries are preparing girls for nursing education and administrative posts with the object of improving patient care, the most important consideration in any nursing programme,” Miss Taylor said.