H.—3l.

International Meeting op Nurses. As one of the five New Zealand official delegates, I attended the quadrennial meeting of the International Council of Nurses held in London in July, 1937. The personal contact made with so many illustrious nurses from every part of the world was invaluable and most inspiring. The British nurses were wonderful hostesses and entertained their visitors most lavishly, the most interesting gathering being an afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace when the Grand Council (the official delegates) of the International Council of Nurses were entertained by Their Majesties Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. The actual business of the Conference covered a very wide field and might be grouped as follows : — Nursing Education : The preparation of the nurse and the introduction of preventive medicine into the basic curriculum. Nursing Administration : Correlation of problems of administration and education. Public-health Nursing : Better preparation of staffs and the correlation of health and bedside nursing aspects of public-health nursing. Modern problems such as the nursing of the chronic sick, the training of dietitians, the development of a Red Cross Nursing Service. Five sub-committees —Mental Hygiene ; Public Health ; Education ; History of Nursing ; and Health of Nursing Staffs —met in conference, but the time was exceedingly limited. I would like to pay a tribute to the excellent nursing care I consider the patients in our New Zealand hospitals receive and to the general reputation the New Zealand nurse has gained abroad. This I feel is largely due to the unfailing efforts of the Matrons of our training-schools and to the senior members of the nursing profession in this country. In comparison with many other places our New Zealand matrons do not have the same assistance in the form of supervisory officers, which makes their task the more arduous. In conclusion, I must again thank the members of our own staff, the Hospital Board authorities, the voluntary organizations, and the New Zealand Registered Nurses Association for the ready help and assistance rendered to me during the past year, for which I am most grateful. M. I. Lambie, Director, Division of Nursing.

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