MISS LAMBIE’S VISIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22405, 12 August 1947, Page 7

MISS LAMBIE’S VISIT

Miss M. I. Lambie, 0.8. E. director of nursing services in New Zealand, and Miss Hutchings, director of the Indian nursing service, are two important figures in the nursing world who were in Gisborne last week. The purpose of Miss Hutchings’ visit to New Zealand from India was _to ascertain whether conditions for train-y ing in hospitals in the Dominion were suitable for the training of specially selected Indian nurses. The coming partition of India into India and Pakistan on August 15 has affected her former plans somewhat, but she expects that the projected scheme will only be delayed by from three to six months. This scheme was formulated some time ago when the Central Indian Council asked Miss Hutchings to organise the nursing services of India on to a better footing. Miss Hutchings went to India 35 years ago as a missionary nurse and her work was so outstanding that the Government singled her out for this work. Under the suggested scheme 20 selected Indian girls with university degrees or other high educational qualifications will spend about five years in New Zealand and then return to India, where they will help to train Indian girls arid will themselves take up administrative positions, helping to put nursing in India on a better footing. The Indian nursing service at present is a very small one. Miss Hutchings left Auckland by plane yesterday on her way back to India in order to present her findings to the Central Indian Council before partition takes place. Her suggestions then will be put before both the Indian and the Pakistan Governments and the future should see the selected Indian girls arriving in New Zealand for training. Both Miss Hutchings and Miss Lambie addressed the nurses during their visit and this was Miss Lambie’s first visit to the Cook Hospital since her return from America, where she attended the International Congres of Nurses in Atlantic City, and at which she received the honour of being appointed first vice-president of the International Council of Nurses. Thirty-five countries were representated at the conference and there were 6000 delegates and visitors representing nurses all over the world, so that for a New Zealander to be appointed first vice-president was a great tribute to Miss Lambie and to the Dominion. Miss Lambie is also world president of the Grand Council of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation.