Grace General Hospital - Our Days of Grace Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 80 text:

Psychiatric training coming up! The idea frightened us. Re¬ gardless of the encouragement and reassurance given by the more expe¬ rienced who had come through.” Lock, stock, and barrel, we moved out. Really, it is amazing what a pile of junk” one can collect without realizing it! This we quickly learned during packing. If we had only known of the souvenirs we would bring back with us—and the memories! —that first day on duty as we played — or learned to play cards. —the insulin wards and all those glucose syringes!! —the ladies from Ward G who loved to dance at the Friday night socials. —a sing song with the aged from Ward J. — personality development” as requested on the examination. —the hurricane” between Rehab, and the Infirmary. — Just walkin in the rain” on our way to breakfast at 6:30 a.m. —Summer, sunshine, swimming, tennis and eating sessions. (Or Winter, woolens and wetness). These things we’ll always remember! We came back with some¬ thing else, too. We had a glimpse of why people are as they are, and more important, why we react as we do. We saw people working with the abstract mind — as real a work as making a bed. Empathy, not sympathy” — remember girls? Remember!!! Who’ll ever forget!!! Page 78

Page 79 text:

September of 1962 — Intermediates at last! No one seemed to notice those bar- pins. We did because we only got fifty cents out of ' that month’s pay check. In March of 1963 our class divided for affiliation. At Selkirk Mental Hospital we realized that among our classmates there were schizophrenics, manic depressives, those that were both and then those that were neither. There are a few yet in which we can carefully say N.Y.D. I am quite sure that my fellow classmates will agree that we were very thankful for our brown booties at Selkirk especially on our evening outings in the Recreation Hall. Oh — oh — h Nurse!” The common diagnosis of schiz” at Selkirk changed to iris” at Children’s. Here we encountered vomiting kids, diapers and feeding tickets. I don’t suppose we’ll ever forget the buzzer system and those beautiful residence rooms. This proved to be a won¬ derful unforgettable experience. Our training led us through intensive care (with it coughing,, deep breathing and leg exercises); public health and casualty. Page 77

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Yes, that’s C.H. It will always have a corner in our memories. The girls we worked with won’t be forgotten. Thanks to their frequent rescuing, all concerned with our experiences survived. For their sake and all who love those Children may we echo a favorite prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray, Dear Lord, my ' Children’ keep.” Croupettes, croupettes everywhere, and not a stitch that’s dry.” Feed the toddlers, feed the babies ... One — two — three — oh, those crumby micro drips!” Lesson time! — a three-year-old announces: I have benign prostatic hyperplasia.” 14 — 13 — 12 — 11 more nights to go before a day off!” Steam room — straight hair and limp cap and uniform.” I must have C.FL ’ids.” I’m sorry doctor — I’m a student and can’t take verbal orders.” I’m in the Cleft Palate room again!” Nurse! This is isolation and we DON’T pick things from the floor.” Pick out the best characteristics of the G D of a ten-month-old from list given you Affiliates at the Winnipeg Children’s Hospital! That’s us! It seems impossible that twelve weeks of our pediatric experiences could have come to an end so quickly. What was it like?