Massage Treatment of Returned Soldiers

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XI, Issue 3, 1 July 1918, Page 120

Massage Treatment of Returned Soldiers

" A department for treatment of returned soldiers which is likely to grow as the number of wounded men in the country increases is that of massage, and, to cope with future requirements, the Defence Department is now preparing to train a number of young men and women in this work. The medical school of the Otago University and the Otago Hospital will be used. Students will be of two classes, those prepared to enter the school in the ordinary way, paying a premium of £57 for an eighteen-months' course, and those prepared to enter under the auspices of the Defence Department and undertake work with the military hospitals for three years. The training of the latter will be arranged for by the Defence Department, and on completion of the course they will be assigned to the various military hospitals where there are patients requiring their services. The Department hopes also to obtain the services of as many private massage students as possible. Both men and women will be trained. Massage of a special character will also be undertaken at the orthopcedic hospital to be established temporarily in Christchurch under the care of the ortho-

poeclic unit which has been formed and trained in England." The above paragraph from the da ily papers has aroused much interest. Over 350 applications have been received for the special course, some from trained nurses ; but as this is not a course for nurses, who should receive some consideration and reduction of time, and whose work at the present time is so much needed in the work for which they have already qualified, their applications have not been accepted. There are now 20 students going through the ordinary course, and many of these will be available for the service as soon as their course is completed. The speck 1 students will be detailed for the practical portion of their course to the various military wards and hospitals where soldiers require treatment, and carry on their training under qualified supervision and teaching . It is hoped that a part at least of this training may be obtained at the Orthopcedic Hospital when all the latest appliances and methods of using them will be avpilable.