496. The following post-graduate qualifications were acquired by Government Medical Officers during the year.
M.R.CP.... M.R.C.O.G.
D.L.O.
D.O.M.S.
D.O.
D.P.H.
DA
D.M.R.T.
D.M.R.D. & T., Part |
DENTISTS
tur
497. Under the Government Dental Scholarship Scheme which started in 1954 there were, at March 31st 1959, 32 Dental Students studying in Malaya and Australia. Of these 11 are at the University of Malaya, 8 at the University of Adelaide and 13 at Melbourne University. The first qualified Dental Surgeon to be assisted under this scheme returned to Hong Kong in 1957.
498. As mentioned carlier in this report, provisional plans to establish a Faculty of Dental Science at Hong Kong University have been approved in principle by Government. However it will be 1961/62 at the carliest before pre-clinical instruction can be started at the University. Meantime, the selection of candidates for 7 Government Scholarships is being carried out annually.
NURSES
499. The continuing expansion of the work of the Department and the necessity to train nursing staff for the large new hospitals under construction has thrown a very considerable strain on the resources of teaching staff and accommodation. The immediate demands have so far been met but the strain will continue until such time as the new Nurses Training School at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon has been fully established.
500. The existing Nurses Preliminary Training School is at the Queen Mary Hospital and this Hospital and Kowloon Hospital are training schools approved by the Nursing Board. The medium of instruction at these schools in English and candidates for training must be in possession of the Hong Kong School Leaving Certificate.
501. The intake of student nurses, male and female, to the Govern- ment Training Schools was increased to 109 and there are now 302
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ourses in training. The Tutor staff was augmented in September 1958 by the return of a Nursing Sister who had obtained the Sister Tutor Certificate of the University of Edinburgh, Additional accommodation for the increased intake of students was obtained by the lease of private houses pending the completion of the new Nurses Preliminary Training School and Quarters at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
502, There is as yet no recognized course of training in Mental Nursing in the Colony. The new Castle Peak Mental Hospital of 1,000 beds, now under construction, will include a training school and a qualified male tutor in psychiatric nursing will return to Hong Kong in August 1959. In anticipation of the need for a nucleus of trained mental nurses a further 13 students were sent to England to train for the Registered Mental Nurse Certificate.
503. In February 1959, at the annual distribution of prizes and certificates to nurses who had qualified at the Goverrunent Schools, Lady Black presented certificates to 32 Nurses, 5 Male Nurses, 11 Health Visitors and 30 Nurse Midwives and twelve prizes to those who had gained distinction in the examinations.
504. A number of qualified nurses, who had gained further experi- ence overseas in differing aspects of nursing, returned to Hong Kong during the year and a further 10 Sisters and Nurses have gone abroad for additional courses of training and experience. These nurses are given no pay leave so that their pensionable service is not broken by their absence. In addition the costs of travel and certain other expenses are met by Government.
505. There are also Nurses Training Schools approved by the Nursing Board at the Tung Wah Hospitals, the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. In these hospitals, where the teaching is carried out in Chinese, there is a total of 409 student nurses in training.
MIDWIVES
506. Registered nurses who have trained in the Government School of Nursing then proceed to take a one-year course in midwifery, con- ducted in English, in the maternity wards of the Queen Mary and Kowloon Hospitals. Those who have trained at the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and Hong Kong Sanatorium also take a one-year course of midwifery in the maternity wards of their respective hospitals, where the teaching is carried out in Chinese.
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