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Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XXII, Issue 4, 1 November 1929, Page 215

Thirty-one candidates sat. 29 passed, 2 completed a pass. The questions were as follows : — 1. What signs and symptoms m a pregnant woman would make you suspect a pre-eclamptic condition? How would you treat such a case? 2. How would you prepare yourself for the purpose of attending a patient during her confinement and puerperium? Mention the chief antiseptics used m midwifery. 3. If a patient engages you to nurse her at her confinement, how would you reckon her probable date? (jive the indications of commencing labour? 4. How would you treat a patient who has haemorrhage after the third stage of labour? 5. How do you diagnose — by palpation — a breech presentation? Give the management of the first and second stages m such a case. 6. Describe what steps you would take m treating an infant that did not breathe when born? The comments of the examiner which follow should be noted by pupils and teachers.

Herewith please find the marks for the Midwifery and Maternity papers. On the whole the answers are good I think. The papers were easy and I have marked rather stiffly m consequence. In the Midwifery paper question 1 was answered well. The trainees are evidently well versed m ante-natal methods. Question 2. — Answers varied considerably. Many nurses omitted to mention traumatic and secondary haemorrhage. In Question 5. 'several nurses lost marks by stating that a rigid os was a cause of delay m the second stage. They forgot the definition of the second stage. In the Maternity Nursing paper Question 1 was answered well on the whole. I am pleased, because it is the most important question on the paper. Question 2. — Several nurses never mentioned how they would prepare themselves, but gave details, down to the last pin, of the things they would take with them — several sheets of bowls, pads, etc., all quite good, but not what was asked for. Question 3. — T was surprised ; that quite half the trainees only gave one method of reckoning the date of birth. They omitted the information which can be learned from quickening and height of fundus.

Question 6. — Not nearly enough distinction is made between the two types of case. Some nurses did not seem to know there was any difference, and tied the cord and smacked all babies that did not breathe at once. Many of them recommended brandy m some form or other, but they must remember that a baby who is not breathing is not swallowing, and that to pour any kind of liquid into its throat is not only useless, but harmful.

The papers on the whole are better written this time. Often the answers are so vague and the candidate gives a wide

field of alternatives to any line of treatment. This time they are more concise. It is a pleasure to examine a one-book paper with answers written m a tabular form and m a way which shows without any padding- that the candidate knows her subject well. After reading through fifty or sixty papers it makes one groan to open a three-book paper written like a letter m which the writer has set herself out to have a confidential talk with the examiner. Most of the over 85 per cent, papers are one-book papers m this examination. Incidentally there is a waste of Government stationery.