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No. 4—HOW BEST TO ESTABLISH UNIFORMITY IN NURSE TRAINING, PEDIATRIC CARE, AND RESEARCH 1. The question of uniformity of training has already been dealt with under para. 1 of the order of reference. 2. All maternity training schools are visited six-monthly by the District Nurse Inspectors, to check up on technique and to examine patients' charts with the object of ensuring that the methods laid down are being properly carried out. 3. In addition, all training schools are visited annually by an Inspector of the Division of Nursing to investigate nursing technique in regard to — (a) The care of the mother and baby. (b) The lectures being given. (c) The method of preparation of case-histories. (d) The method adopted in writing up charts. (e) The method in which records are kept. 4. These reports are submitted to the Nurses and Midwives Board, which holds a, minimum of five meetings per annum. The resolutions arising from the Board's deliberations are conveyed, where necessary, to the training school concerned, and .steps are taken to ensure that all " follow-up " action necessary is taken. 5. The Nursing Division of the Department of Health has co-operated with Dr. Deem, and Miss Lusk, Medical Adviser and Nursing Adviser respectively to the Plunket Society, in regard to research into breast-feeding, and in regard to any matter referred to the Division by the Obstetrical Section of the Research Council. 6. There is a standard text-book for all maternity training schools. The author is Dr. Corkill. 7. In all maternity training schools there is at least one Sister with Plunket training to ensure standard care of teaching in regard to infants. 8. The system of case nursing whereby the mother and baby are nursed as one nnit by a trainee is the practice universally advocated in New Zealand maternity training schools. 9. This year, as part of the post-graduate course, the Department has established an Obstetric Section for the training of Senior Nurses who eventually will be either in charge of an obstetrical hospital, or will be in charge of the teaching of obstetrical nursing. 10. The course in obstetrics is under the guidance of an officer of the Nursing Division, herself an experienced midwife, and who was given a year's experience abroad to enhance her fitness for this position. 11. It is hoped by this means to prepare even more adequately those whose duty it is to teach obstetrics, and generally to create a further incentive for Senior Nurses to specialize in obstetrics. 12. After visiting training schools in Northern Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and America, the nursing officers of the Division of Nursing are convinced that there is better uniformity of nursing training in New Zealand than in any other country visited, and this irrespective of the fact that this Dominion does not possess the palatial institutional buildings seen in the older countries. 13. The Nursing Education Committee of the Obstetric Branch of the New Zealand Registered Nurses' Association has from time to time carried out research into different aspects of obstetric nursing—i.e., bathing of babies, breast-feeding, &c.' —and these have been published in the New Zealand Nursing Journal.

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