In an endeavour to give readers the feel of how NJI looked like hundred years ago, we are reproducing
editorial of March 1910 issue. Such excerpts would be published each month.
EDITORIAL
Bombay is to be congratulated on the prospect of having a lying-in Hospital for the poor women
of the mill districts... scheme is being pushed by Mr John A Turner, MB, DPH, the Ex Health
Officer of Bombay. Donations and subscriptions are being collected for the purpose and the work
of construction will begin as soon as a suitable amount becomes available. It is proposed to have a
hospital of about hundred beds, divided so as to give accommodation to different castes. Native
midwives will be trained and supplied free to the poor. The cost of building and equipment is Rs.
1,50,000 and Rs 30,000 a year required to maintain it. The following gentlemen have agreed to
become the Trustees of the new hospital : Sir Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy, Bart., Mr CN Wadia, Sir
Sassoon David, Mr Jehangir Bomonji P, Sir Vithaldas D Thakersey, the Hon’ble Mr F Currimbhoy
Ebrahim, Mr Jamsetji Ardesir Wadia.
The prevalence of puerperal fever in this country makes a very important issue... The matter
of State Registration for nurses is making great progress in England. The Medico-Political
Committee of the British Medical Association included it in five questions which they brought
before candidates of the Parliament in the recent General Elections.
The following is their memorandum on Nurses’ Registration : “The evidence given before the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on the subject of Nurses’ Registration, and the
report of that Committee sufficiently indicated the strength of the opinion among nurses, and
others have given special attention to the subject, that there should be … State Registration of
Nurses which would afford a guarantee of the treatment and, if proper disciplinary powers were
entrusted to the Board, a …. Of good conduct…
Strange as it may seem, there has been a good deal of opposition to the Nurses’ registration
from the medical profession on both sides of the Atlantic. United States now has registration as
an accomplished fact in many of States, but it was won in some instances after a hard struggle...
Here in India the need is even greater than in other countries for some differentiation between
trained nurses, and partly or wholly untrained ones… We hope the Associations of Nurses will soon
be able to obtain registration. The Bombay Government has a scheme in view for registration in
Bombay and the Punjab Government is also taking interest in the matter. There will be much to be
decided as to text-books, theoretical teaching, etc., particularly in regard to training schools for
Indian schools, before anything like a uniform standard of proficiency can be obtained.
Now, when the subject of registration for themselves is claiming the attention of all the
doctors in India, nurses expect only sympathy from them like effort for nurses. The doctors feel
that the whole status of the medical profession in India is lowered by the existing competition
with unqualified doctors, and even to a greater extent is it true that nursing work has no dignity in
the minds of the people, and is quite misunderstood, where no one, no matter how untrained, is
at liberty to call herself a nurse…
[
Note: We may inform our readers that the master copy of NJI, March 1910 issue was in quite
shabby form and worn out along the margins. Hence elipses have been added at places for the
sake of clarity in the content - Editor]
