NATIONAL HOSPITAL WEEK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21645, 16 May 1932, Page 3

NATIONAL HOSPITAL WEEK

REUNION OF NURSES In connection with the celebration of National Hospital Week, the annual reunion of past and present nurses of the Dunedin Hospital Training School was held on Saturday in the Nurses’ Home in Cumberland street. Mr W. E. S. Knight (chairman of the Hospital Board), in the course of a short speech, reminded the gathering that the credit of instituting National Hospital Week must be given to Dr Falconer. The observance of such a week was spreading throughout New Zealand; it was an occasion of much joy and happiness, as it gave former nurses the opportunity of renewing acquaintance with old friends and of meeting new ones. Miss Wilkin (massage department, Dunedin Hospital) gave a verv interesting account of her visit last year to London hospitals, with their up-to-date methods of treatment, and said she was looking forward to making a similar trip in the future in order to learn still more of the splendid work in which the nurses there engaged. Votes of thanks were accorded Miss Wilkin' for her address and Dr Falconer for giving the opportunity of a most enjoyable re-union. Musical items added to the pleasure of the gathering and afternoon tea was handed round. SPECIAL SUNDAY' OBSERVANCE SERVICE AT KNOX CHURCH. Special services were held yesterday at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the morning and at Knox Church in the evening, and these were attended by the chairman and members of the Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, the superintendent and matron of the Public Hospital, and members of the medical and nursing professions of the city. At Knox Church the sermon, preached by the Rev. D. C. Herron, was preceded by an address by Dr A. R. Falconer.

In the course of his address Dr Falconer explained that May 12 (National Hospital Day-), was the anniversary of the birthday of Florence Nightingale, and it had been set apart in many, countries in order to turn the attention of the whole community to its own hospital, so that it might become better acquainted with its resources and needs, and particularly its most pressing need. . On this day the community should pause and realise that a modern hospital was the embodiment of the ideals, of_ Florence Nightingale—an institution which by its whole-hearted care of the sick, and the protection of the weak was the most powerful influence in community life. “ Florence Nightingale,” Dr Falconer continued. “ became a legend in her own lifetime. The story of her earlier years is the building up of a character. She was a girl of high • natural ability who forsook a life of ease in a cultured homo and society for a life of active usefulness, and she neglected nothing to perfect herself in the art of nursing the sick, and to attain her end she had to break down prejudices, both social and religious. The story is the, history of the emancipation of women. Not only was she a ministering angel in the Crimea, but* she was a hospital administrator and reformer. The Red Cross societies throughout the world are the direct outcome of her labours in the Crimea. She founded the modern art of nursing, In tracing the progress made in Dunedin in the hospital outlook between the years 1900 and 1932, the speaker thought that a claim might he made that in_ some measure the ideals of Florence Nightingale had been carried out. , , In 1900 no child under two years of age was ordinarily admitted to the Dunedin Hospital without an order from the-House Committee; chronic diseased patients were nursed by infirmary patients; diphtheria and tubercular patients were sadly neglected; maternity patients were nursed in the wards of the Benevolent Institution; mental patients had often to stay the night in gaol pending inquiry; accident cases were removed to Hospital in a hand carriage; and the sick poor received only the untrained attention of their next-door neighbours. There was no public health department in 1900,'and massage, dietetics, serum therapy, radium, and X-rays were still to come. In 1932, Dr Falconer continued, the child’was cared for by a Plunket, system of nursing, known throughout the world. There had been a Dominion-wide canvass for funds to improve the standard of care for maternity patients. There were sanatoria for the tuberculous, and more humane provision for infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and mental patients. There were homes for orphans and the aged poor. X-rays, serum therapy, and dietetic therapy were elaborately installed. The sick poor were kindly attended,\by a trained district nurse, and the injured were removed with speed aind comfort to hospital in a motor ambulance, there was a Massage School which carried with honour a great burden during the war years. A Public Health Department had come into being, and finally great progress had been made in the facilities for training doctors and nurses to care for the sick in a scientific way in this year of 1932, . , What, the speaker asked, still remained to be done? He drew attention to the Prince of Wales’s “ Call to youth and nation ” in his speech at the Albert Hall in January last, asking for a wider degree of service in all its aspects, and particularly the “opportunity for service at our doors, in our own village, in our own town.” Our hospital’s contribution might be an extension of the Social Service Department, so as to be in a pivotal position of co-relating the work of the • voluntary social service organisations m ameliorating sickness, preventing disease, and rehabilitating the broken home, ihus would the hospital increase its value as a Good Neighbour, with thaf spirit of service in each individual. worker from which comes,” says the Prince, ‘ the, greatness of a State.” And Florence Nightingale would add, “And all for the love oi The Rev. Mr Herron said that Dr Falconer’s striking address had direct bearing not only upon the work of the medical and nursing section of the community but also upon the present social situation. Florence Nightingale was a pioneer who had broken through prejudice into a fresh field of humanitarian service. She had, to fight committees, social arid religious prejudices, and vested interests. But she was a determined, resolute woman and won her battles one by one. Even if the Crimean War had never broken out her name would have gone down in history as one of England s great leaders in social reform. _ There was upon her life a kind of Divine compulsion that reminded us of the force that drove the Hebrew prophets _ through the nameless difficulties of their lives - and compelled them to blaze a new trail through prejudice and religious conservatism into a more adequate conception of the character and purpose of God. In face of 'the call so admirably stated by the Prince of Wales early this year—the call to launch, out on a compaign of neighbourliness which would cause, people simply to forget the artificial social dia 1 tinctions, there must be numbers of young people in good circumstances who were chafing at uselessness of the bridgeplaying, jazzing kind of life and restlessly straining on the leash in their desire to break through into some field of activity whore their capacities might be fully employed helping those on whom the burden of life was pressing heavily. “Those,” continued Mr Herron, “who feel that they have been called of God to the nursing profession realise that iu addition to scientific skill, a spirit of friendliness is a great help to the healing of broken lives. But many who are sick in mind do not come to hospital for treatment. They are hidden away in homes where the struggle is hard and embittering. The present situation calls for the casting aside of a good deal the pleasuremaking activitities by those who have leisure and a determined effort to find some sphere of usefulness where friendliness—not patronage, which is rightly resented—could come as a healing influence to those tempted to abandon the struggle. The Prince of Wales said we live in a world sick with a fearful doubt, weary with repeated disappointments, a world of troubled nations whose vital need is courageous faith in one another. That is an accurate description of the position not only of nations but of communities. Urgent though material help undoubtedly is, I am sure, many people even more urgently need that healing of mind that comes with the consciousness of the friendliness of others who are prepared to stand by them when adverse currents are breaking dangerously near. “ This week,” he said, “ I was visiting in a homo where there is a large family of small children. The father is on relief I work. When T. was leaving the mother significantly said. ‘We shall be all right so long as we do not get into a panic.’

People do not get into a panic when they have the steadying influence of_ genuine friends. That is what is needed just now. Don’t take it for granted that the various organisations can do all that is necessary. I am not minimising their value. God alone knows what would be happening to some people this year without them. But no central machinery can prove a substitute for a good neighbour. Jesus said that the whole duty of life consisted of loving God with all our strehgth and our neighbour as ourself. Whenever a person does this full duty, life becomes a very satisfactory thing.” ST. JOSEPH’S CATHEDRAL.

At St. Joseph’s Cathedral Pontifical High Mass was celebrated at 11 o’clock by Bishop Whyte, Monsignor Delaney being assistant priest, the Rev. Father J. Halley and the Rev. J. Honner, deacon and sub-deacon respectively of this mass; the Revs. F. Columb and W. Sheely, deacons at the throne; and the Rev. M. Brooks, master of ceremonies. The music was Mozart’s Twelfth Mass, excellently rendered by the choir, with Mr R. W. Rodgers at the organ, and Mr Albert Vallis conducting. The occasional sermon was preached by the Rev. Father Collins, administrator, who delivered the following address: —“It. is once more my'pleasant duty to, welcome to this cathedral the medical fraternity and nurses of the city of Dunedin on the occasion of what is known as National Hospital Sunday. H is a matter of mere coincidence, I take it, that the Sunday chosen is the gi'eat Feast of Penticost—the anniversary of one of the greatest days in the triumph of Christianity. “At the present time the world is passing through one of the saddest periods in its history. In the years that have gone we foolishly thought that our great economic and social machine was destined to function without let or hindrance until the crack of Doom. To-day we see that machine hopelessly broken down. Economic laws and principles that we 1 were wont to cherish as almost infallible have flown to the winds, and at last we come to realise that the teachings of the Crucified One and the practices of the early Christians are the only solutions of the great world problems of the day. As a newlyconsecrated bishop in Australia remarked a few days ago a proud generation that refuses to bow to God and the Church find itself perplexed and bewildered by spiritual, economic, and social problems of the gravest import—problems for every one of which the Catholic Church holds an answer and a remedy. “ To-day we are called upon to celebrate the great 'Feast of Pentecost, to commemorate that day on which was fulfilled the promise of Christ to His apostles that He would send the Paraclete who should abide with them forever; that day called by St. Augustine the Birthday of the Holy Ghost. In to-day’s Gospel we read how early in the morning, while the apostle® and disciples were engaged in prayer, there was heard the sound of a mighty wind coming, which filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared parted tongues as it were of fire, which sat upon every one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in divers tongues according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. “ Hitherto, since the creation of mankind, God the Holy Ghost had been working silently in the souls of men. He was the great Sanctifier. But the office of Sanctifier is twofold. Men, besides being considered as individuals,' must also be considered as forming a society; as members of one great body, the mystical body of Christ, His Church. And it is with

this tody that the second office of the. Holy Ghost is concerned. The first part of His mission began at the creation of man; the second only on the day of the first Christian Pentecost.

“ After the fall of Adam, God took pity on the work of His Hand and promised a Redeemer Who should restore to man ■the supernatural life he had lost. In the course of time that Redeemer came in

the person of Jesus Christ. He redeemed the fallen race by His voluntary death on Calvary, but before His death He founded a Church which should lead men to Heaven by dispensing to them the merits of His Death and Passion, and by feeding them with the bread of true doctrine. Christ Himself, however, left only the nucleus of that Church —eleven of the Apostles and a few Disciples. It was the work of another Person of the Holy Trinity to nourish and develop that nucleus: to perfect its creation and organisation; to form out /of that handful of illiterate men the greatest institution the world has ever seen, and that Person was the Holy Ghost. “During that memorable discourse which Our Lord gave to the Apostles at the last supper' He told them that He was soon to depart from them, but that He would not leave them orphans. He would send them another Paraclete—that is, another comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who would teach them all things and would abide with them for ever. After the Ascension of our Saviour, His Apostles and Disciples/ waited in daily expectancy of this great .Comforter. They did not doubt their Master’s word, thsy knew the Paraclete would come. Thus it was that they were praying on that Sunday morning when the Holy Ghost ascended upon them An the form of tongues of fire.

“We know what they were before; men, weak and illiterate; men, who had deserted our Lord in the saddest hour of His Passion —who lived in constant dread of the Jews, and Who were the very last according to. the judgments of worldly wisdom, who should be chosen to propagate a new religion. But what a transformation takes place. They are filled with a heavenly strength; from fearful they become fearless, burning with zeal to proclaim the teachings ot their And Peter, the very one who had not' been ashamed to deny his

Lord .thrice, is the first to face the wondering throng and charge them with the murder of their Redeemer. So full of zeal and Divine unction is his discourse that it converts no fewer than 3000 souls. Nor are the other disciples less courageous or less zealous. They portray in fearless language the Messianic character of their Master and proclaim His doctrine to the world. But that which most excites the admiration of their audience is that though they speak in their own language they are heard in the languages of their several hearers. And the wondering crowd exclaims: ‘Behold, are not all these that speak Gallileans? And how have we heard every man our own tongue wherein we were born?’ Well might they exclaim ‘The finger of God is here.’ Yes, not only the finger-of God, but God Himself. For the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, had come and was speaking through these chosen disciples. “This was the beginning of His wonderful works in the Church of Christ, but it was only the beginning. For from that day He has been multiplying. His miracles and will continue to multiply

them until the end of time. The Catholic Church had begun, but what wonders had to he wrought before it should accomplish its end. , . “ Here is a new religion—beginning with a few illiterate fishermen—setting out with what purpose? To conquer the world! To worldlings it is utter presumption. Consider for a moment the difficulties it has to encounter. In the first place, it has to_ convert the Jews, a nation which is being crushed by the Roman Power, which looks for the advent of a Messiah who shall free Israel from its servitude to the Caesars, One for whom they have been praying for centuries —the Hope and Pride of Israel. And here is the religion which tells them the Messiah has come —not the One of Whom they have dreamed —but One Who was the meekest of men and ended His life by the most disgraceful of deaths—that of the cross. Moreover, their Messiah was to confine his gifts to themselves alone. This One dispenses His gifts to all nations. Then again, theirs is the religion of justice; this is the religion of mercy. Their motto is ‘An eye for ah eye, a tooth for a tooth ’; but Christ, the Founder of this new religion, has said, ‘ If one strike thee on thy; right cheek, turn to him also the other.’ In a -word, here is a religion whose principles will blast forever their cherished dreams. How can they accept it? “ Now consider the pagan world. Nearly all earthly power is possessed by the city of Rome. In the course of 800 years she has conquered from the Atlantic to tlie Euphrates, from the Rhine and Danube to the Nile. But as great as is her power, so low is her religion. The true God is unknown or forgotten. Men pay divine worship to creatures and to the vilest of creatures. There is no consideration for human life; women and slaves are looked upon as the goods and chattels of their masters. _ The very worst of vices arc exalted into virtues, and men live and die for pleasure, caring nothing for a future life. It is to such a nation that this new religion comes; which worships one only God, and Him a spirit; which binds men to give themselves not to licentiousness, but to self-

denial; which promises eternal happiness to those who will deny themselves, but only eternal misery to those who will indulge themselves. A religion which, in short, is totally opposed to the beliefs and habits of the wealthy Romans. And it has come to conquer Rome. How can it ever do so?

“ But despite all difficulties, what do we find? ’That in the second century after the death of Christ His religion has spread so rapidly that it deserves to be called a universal one. It has spread throughout the East, crossed the Jordan, and is flourishing in the great cities of Syria. It is strong enough in Alexandria to draw the attention of the Emperor Hadrian on his first visit to the city. ' From Antioch it has radiated throughout North Syria and into the mountainous country of Armenia; thence across the ridges of Tourus into Capadocia, Galatia, and Bethniu, and along the coasts of Asia Minor. Then, in the west, it has made its way to Rome and the towns or Southern Italy. It has penetrated into Gaul, into Spain, and the islands of the Mediterranean. So that by the year 200 a.d. there is scarcely a prominent city in the Mediterranean world that does not possess its Christian bishop, with a clergy and • a flourishing community. “ Since that time the Catholic Church has spread throughout all nations, overcoming obstacles greater even than the Roman power. Enemies the most subtle have risen up against her, but still she flourishes. Century after century the floods of heresy and infidelity have dashed down upon her with overwhelming strength, but she, the imperishable rock, stands firm. Persecutions innumerable have been hurled at her, but these only helped to invigorate her. In the early centuries down came the heresies of the Gnostics, or Arius, Pelagius, and Nestotius. They dashed with all their strength against her and then flowed on, spent and useless. After these followed the era of Eutyches and the Monotholites—and in later times those, of the so-called reformers. Then, in our own days, come the devices of materialism and infidelity. All have rushed down on fier like so many mighty torrents threatening to engulf her. At times it has seemed as if the deluge would overpower her. But no! High though the waves be, great though their power, she, shaking off the errors that endeavour to cling around her, emerges from them all more majestic and serene than ever, while they flow on as wasted waters into a vast ocean of worthless error. So she has been for centuries, so shall she be until the end of time —the one, true, apostolic, imperishable church. And this is the church which on Pentecost morn consisted of a few illiterate fishermen! ~ “ This, surely, is no work of man. Those few poor fishermen could not have worked such marvels by their own power. What, then, accounts for their success? Two things; first, the memory of their_ crucified Saviour, and, secondly, the assistance of the Holy Ghost. The first guided in its proper course by the second, has worked all. God the Holy Ghost came, down on the infant Church on Pentecost morn and has remained with her ever since; imparting to her life and strength,—a supernatural life and a supernatural strength. So He will be with her all days, even to, the consummation of the world —the fulfilment of a great and glorious promise. “I-have said the only solution of the world’s difficulties to-day is a return to the teachings of Christ and the practices of the early Church. What are they? Times does not permit more than a reference to the chief ones among them. _ As regards marriage, what God hath joined together let no man break asunder, and again: Thou shalt not commit adultery. As regards infant life: Thou shalt not kill. As regards our dealings with our neighbour: Thou shalt not steal. Again, the words of our Divine Saviour on_ the Mount: Blessed are the poor in spirit; Blessed are , the. meek; Blessed are the merciful; Blessed are the peacemakers, and so on through the eight beatitudes. Then again at the Last Supper on the night before He suffered: By this shall

men know that you are My disciples, that, you love one another as I have loved you. Furthermore, the first and greatest commandment is this:, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc., and the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Coming to the Acts of the Apostles, we read in the fourth chapter of the early Christian: For neither was there any one needy among them. For as many as were owners \of lauds or houses, sold them,' and brought the price of the things they sold and laid it down before the feet of the Apostles. And distribution was made to everyone according as he had need. “God forbid that I should countenance anything in the nature of Socialism or Communism. But the texts quoted show that the teaching of Christ and of His early disciples was charity above all things. The encyclicals of 1 Leo XIII and of the present Sovereign Pontiff on the social and economic problems of their day emphasise in no uncertain terms the absolute necessity of this Christian chanty and a return to the maxims of our Divine Redeemer. , “ And why quote these Christian principles to you, the doctors and nurses ot our city? Simply because you are in the midst of these world problems. Eyery day you are dealing with family difficulties, the results of the pagan ideas that have taken hold of man’s mind; with poverty and distress, the outcome of what is called the world-wide depression. You see for yourselves that, Christian ideals and Christian principles are the ohly sure remedy. Your lives are, for the great part, lives of charity and self-sacrifice. You are carrying on the work of our Saviour in performing what are known as the corporal works of mercy; attending to the needy, the sick, and the suffering. Your charity has, for years past, £>een almost a by-word in out city. The thanks of the bishop and the Catholic clergy of Dunedin I tender sincerely to you to-day, for the great courtesy and consideration always shown to us in our ministrations. May that charity of yours ever continue as the outstanding feature of your professions; but let it be that t charity _ that recognises in your fellow-beings the image of your Creator, ■ “In conclusion, as a balm to apply in our present sorrows and distress, I may he permitted to quote the words of the Right Rev. Dr Liston, spoken on Anzac Day in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Auckland; “ dur days would, indeed, be worn and spent and empty if we failed to reckon with Christ, the Saviour of men ; We are all speaking these days of our difficult problem. There is no problem He has not met and solved in that human nature of ours with which He did His work on earth; birth in poverty, exile in Egypt from home and friend, hardship, employment, and, no doubt, at times unemployment, injustice, calumny, ingratitude, suffering in soul and body, death in agony, burial in a stranger’s grave. If, then, this Divine Surgeon is at work in the world of our day, we must remember that He is a surgeon of experience in our own human life and affairs. Only by putting ourselves in His hands will the wounds heal clean and the sweet fragrance ot health return.” ,