DENTAL NURSE TRAINING

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29985, 21 November 1962, Page 2

DENTAL NURSE TRAINING

Big Increase In Applications More than twice as many girls have applied to enter the South Island dental nurse training school in Christchurch next year as there are places in the school, the principal (Mr E. Brebner) said recently. The Health Department was considering making further places available, he said. The educational standard of the applicants was high, many having endorsed school certificates or university entrance, Mr Brebner said. Any rise in numbers would involve new building, but it might be possible to take in extra from next year since the "bottleneck” was in the second year of the course, when sufficient facilities had to be available in the surgery At present there was surgery accommodation for 52 girls. Mr Brebner could not give exact figures for applications, as these were dealt with through Wellington. For the same reason he could not give daita on applications for the other two dental nurse schools (in Auckland and Wellington), although he had been given to understand that their application numbers were also up. The Christchurch school had difficulty in filling its quota for the 1961 year, and there was only moderate interest in places for 1962. Mr Brebner thinks the surge this year is mainly a reflection of the rise in birth rate around 1945

Mr Brebner is one of a panel now interviewing applicants for the Christchurch school The panel was in Otago and Southland last week, and will be on the West Coast next week. Canterbury applicants are being seen as opportunity arises.