Souvenir report / International Council of Nurses Quadrennial Congress.
- International Council of Nurses. Quadrennial Congress
- Date:
- 1937
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Souvenir report / International Council of Nurses Quadrennial Congress. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![T was appropriate that the opening meeting L.: the Quadrennial International Congress of Nurses should be preceded by a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, the scene of so many thanksgiving services. A special address was given by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. As far as the weather was concerned this Congress cannot have been better timed. The crowd awaiting admission to the Central Hall, Westminster, before half past eight on Monday morning was a most impressive sight. There were nurses from over thirty different countries representing every branch of the pro- fession. THE PRINCESS ROYAL’S WELCOME. Inside the Hall, gay with the flags of these nations, an audience of upwards of 3,000 greeted the Princess Royal, who declared the Congress open. The Princess, who was received by the Mayor of. Westminster (Honble. Arthur Howard, J.P.), Dame Alicia Lloyd Still, and Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, extended a warm welcome to the Inter- In the words of Florence Nightingale, nursing was something in national Council of Nurses. which they must make progress every year. OUR PROGRESS. This opening ceremony was truly inspiring, being representative in every sense of the word. In addition to the Civic reception, Sir Kingsley Wood welcomed the delegates on behalf of the British Government and referred to organised nursing as “an integral part of the social fabric of this country.” Nursing was not¢a definite pro- fession the members of which were fellow workers in medicine. Lord Dawson of Penn received a great reception when, as President of the Royal College of Phy- sicians, he referred to the inspiring part played by nursing in the science of medicine and paid homage to the profession. Sir Cuthbert Wallace, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said there were nurses . . . and nurses. Something more than mere scientific knowledge—call it perhaps the spirit of Florence Nightingale—turned a trade into a profession, PRELIMINARY TRAINING. Mr. Kenneth Lindsay, Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education, mentioned that 2,500 2 nurses were employed by his department through- out the country. The Board was also concerned in providing the very highest type of girls and the best form of training for the nursing profession. Mlle. Jeanne de Joannis, President of the National Association of Trained Nurses of France, extended a welcome on behalf of that body. Wear- ing her neat uniform, Frau Oberin Helene Blunck, President of the Nurses’ Association of Germany, added her welcome, and invited all nurses to visit German Hospitals. This concluded the opening ceremony of the Congress, for which many dele- gates had travelled thousands of miles. In her Presidential Address Dame Alicia Lloyd Still said they were in danger of making a study of nursing instead of an informed and _ skilled practice of it. They needed both science and art, but it must be applied science and practical art. THE LADY WITH THE LAMP. At a general session held on Wednesday evening a crowded Hall saw three new member Associa- tions welcomed. These were Australia, Switzerland and Roumania. Each representative, preceded by her country’s flag, was greeted with its National Anthem. One of the most inspiring hours of the whole Congress. Later Sir George Newman, whose publications when Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health were so well known to us, gave the Florence Nightingale Oration. Sir George spoke of Miss Nightingale’s early life and aspirations, her many qualities and achievements, and quoted delightfully optimistic passages of Robert Brown- ing’s ““ Rabbi Ben Ezra,’ which he said was one of Miss Nightingale’s favourite poems. ‘Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be What I aspired to be And was not, comforts me.”’ Sir George’s oration was an excellent biographical] sketch of the pioneer Englishwoman whose name has been so prominent during Congress week. Referring to the 42 nationalities represented in the vast audience, the speaker concluded by saying that to know and to study each other was always the better to understand each other. oh tSe.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33428426_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
