Nursing Service

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 February 1948, Page 7

Nursing Service

KEEPING A STANDARD “I am convinced that by lowering the standards by which the great nursing service has been built up, the difficulties of recruitment will increase, not decrease,” said Sir George Aylwen, chairman of St. Bartholomew's Hospital and London's next Lord Mayor, in the course of a broadcast address in New Zealand. He expressed pleasure at finding that the training of nurses in New Zealand extended from three to four years. This period was .general in England, although a committee which recently prepared a report had recommended that the time be reduced to 18 months. This would, in his opinion, be totally inadequate for the proper training of nurses. Sir George said that he had found much to interest him in the hospitals of the Dominion. The problems of obtaining domestic and nursing staffs seemed to be acute in New Zealand, as they were at Home, but the patient continued to receive every consideration and attention. "The tradition of Florence Nightingale must continue to inspire. The patient must ever be the first consideration,” he said. In referring to the new medical school in Dunedin, Sir George expressed appreciation of the kindness of Sir Charles Hercus in showing it to him. “I was filled with envy, but inspired by the hope that we in England might emulate this great conception of a teaching school. May Dunedin’s school function to its fullest extent at the earliest possible moment, and may it be extending its hospitality to many of the profession from England at no distant time,” he declared. Sir George urged greater co-opera-tion between countries in the fields of research and medical knowledge. In his opinion, one of the most important things was the interchanging of visits by members of the medical profession and the general pooling of their knowledge. He would, he said, always work towards that end. '