THE NURSING PROFESSION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19632, 28 October 1933, Page 4

THE NURSING PROFESSION

WORLD CONFERENCE N.Z. DELEGATE RETURNS Miss E. J. Young, of Dunedin, who headed the delegation from New Zealand at the recent international conference of nurses at Paris and Brussels, was a passenger by the Rangitiki, which arrived at Wellington from London on Tuesday evening. “I was very much impressed by the fact that nearly everywhere I went in England and on the Continent, particularly, of course, in the medical and nursing world. New Zealand was known and noted for two outstanding features so far as public health and nursing are concerned,” said Miss Young to “The Post” to-day. “One feature was that New Zealand was the first country in the world to have State registration of nurses, and the second was that this country has the lowest infant mortality in the world, and our child welfare work is universally admired. “At the conference in Paris there was an attendance of 2000 nurses from 21 countries. It was remarkable that delegates from Japan, China, Philippines, Latvia, Greece, Bulgaria, and other countries all spoke English fluently, and it was also evident from their addresses that many of the delegates were women of outstanding ability. “The principal business done at the meeting was probably the decision to take over the international courses held at Bedford College for Women, London, in conjunction with the College of Nursing, as an international memorial to Forence Nightingale. A number of committees submitted reports on subjects allotted to them to study since the last conference, held in Montreal in 1929. These reports were discussed at length. They included such subjects as nursing education, public health, private duty nursing, and mental nursing and hygiene.

“The meeting, which has in the past aroused the keenest interest throughout the congress, has always been the social event when the newly-affiliated national associations have been formally welcomed into international federation. The ceremonies opened by the chairman presenting to the audience the national representatives of 21 countries, all of whom received an ovation from the auditorium, the audience rising as they made their bows. A most inspiring procession was that of nurses representing national nursing pioneers. The late Mrs Grace Neill was chosen as New Zealand's pioneer nurse.

“The members of the congress spent two days in Brussels, where they received a hearty welcome, and for the first time in its history the International Council of Nurses received Royal recognition, when their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians honoured the council by inviting all the members assembled there to a reception at the Royal Palace of Laeken, an occasion which will be ever remembered with pride and pleasure by those who had the honour to be present." A Wonderful Sight “The Great Hall, of the Salle Pleyel, Paris, was a wonderful sight from the platform at the opening session of the congress on the morning' of July 10, crowded as it was from floor to ceiling with an audience of the world’s nurses,” said Miss Young, “M. Danielou, the French Minister of Public Health, presided at this inaugural meeting, and was supported by the other speakers, including Mile. Chaptal (president International Council of Nurses), Dr. Jules Renault, Professor Leon Bernard, Mrs Bedford Fenwick, Miss E. M. Musson, and others. In the course of his address, the French Minister of Health said:—'l am proud to have the privilege of welcoming you, because of the character and importance of this meeting; the least that I can say about it is that it stands out as the most' representative school of feminine kindness placed at the service of human suffering and misery.

. . . Your activities have become universal at the same time as they become intellectual. You have gone further than the doorsteps of the hospitals and clinics. You go to people's houses, to factories, to schools, to villages. Everywhere one meets you! What splendid activity! But also how tiring all this is, often to the point of exhaustion—we know it only to well—all those tramps on the high and dark staircases of workers’ houses, up and down which you have to go continually many times daily. And what about the visits in all sorts of weather, in pouring rain, in the cold, in the country, from which you sometimes bring back the fatal cough and the disease you had gone to cure! And while I evoke these hard times, my thoughts go towards those who were your sisters, whose blue shadow is amongst you, and who died, victims of duty."