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CHAPTER 2
arranged by the Health Service, British Council for Orthopaedic Surgeons organized by
the Stanmore Orthopaedic Hospital, as well as those from the National Hospital for
Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, and the medical services of the Army and
Air Force. In recent years, the Centre has been included in the postgraduate courses
of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. Physicians and surgeons from other countries
have been sent to this Centre for training and have, as a result, set up spinal units in
various countries. Welfare officers, administrators and architects from hospitals and
Government departments of this and other countries have visited the Centre to seek
advice in the building and administration of Spinal Units.
2
Postgraduate courses for nurses
Apart from regular visits of groups of nurses who are sent to this Centre for formal
lectures through the Royal College of Nursing, four-monthly postgraduate courses have
been introduced since 1953 which are attended by nurses from hospitals and institutions
in this country and indeed from all over the world. They take part in the actual work of
the Centre and thus gain immediate practical experience; in addition they receive regular
lectures by senior members of the medical staff. Some of the postgraduate nurses have
continued working in the Centre after the course to gain more detailed experience. The
Centre is, of course, included in the training programme of student and pupil nurses
of the Aylesbury Nursing School, mainly in their second and third years.
3
Physiotherapy and occupational therapy staff
In addition to full day visits of individuals and groups of physiotherapists and occupa–
tional therapists from teaching schools and hospitals, annual postgraduate courses for
physiotherapists have been held for a number of years which have become very popular
and are greatly supported by the British Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
4
Teaching outside the Centre
Throughout the years, members of the medical staff as well as the former Lay Adminis–
trator, Miss Scruton, and Welfare Officer of the Centre have delivered a great number
of lectures to teaching hospitals, training schools and many organizations such as Red
Cross, St John's Ambulance Brigade, W.V.S., British Legion, Rotary and Round Table
Clubs, Government departments, etc. Members of the medical staff have been invited
to lecture at international congresses and visit other countries to lecture on the problems
of paraplegia. Meetings of medical and scientific organizations, such as the Neurological
and Orthopaedic sections of the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Biochemical
Society and sections of international congresses such as the International Congress of
Physical Medicine and International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled
(recently called Rehabilitation International), have been held at this Centre throughout
the years. Moreover, regular international Scientific Meetings on Paraplegia have been
organized since 1953 on the occasion of the annual International Stoke Mandeville
