Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing - Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Editorial When the class of 1944 began the preparation and education necessary to become members of the nursing profession, our country was still on the edges of the great conflict now raging throughout the world. We chose our profession without a great deal of meditation on becoming war nurses. Our ambitions and desires were rather drawn toward the care and teaching of the ill of our nation. I doubt that we even considered the scope of our work and endeavor to include as large a community as the nation. Therefore, I believe that we must be classified as nurses in war rather than war nurses. After Pearl Harbor, and our country’s entrance into actual fighting, we came face to face with the problems of military casualties, of safeguarding civilian, industrial and public health, and of education of larger groups of nurses. We were quick to realize we must give up our first plans for it would be our duty to aid in the emergency. Nurses were needed at once and we would be ready and available sooner than the “War Classes’’ those whose training and education began after December 7, 1941. In this we are privileged to stand beside the men of our fighting forces. Their ambitions, their plans for their lives and careers did not include fight- ing a war but they have taken up the fight. These men who give so freely have provided us with a challenging example to follow in converting our own plans to include the work of nurses in war. Our sacrifices are not as great as many of theirs have been and will be. In peace, we planned to help with healing minds, bodies and spirits. As nurses in war, that is still our job. And we do not need to lay aside the work for which we have been prepared. Not so the man in uniform who was ambitious to become an artist, author or executive. Medical science has given the nurse a share in the great job of caring for and healing the minds, bodies and spirits of our fighting men and our fighting civilians. It has given us the opportunity to teach the mothers of the nation that they may continue to bring their children up to be healthy, happy individuals despite the atmosphere of strife in the world. And to all this is added the privilege of assisting in the program of post war reconstruction. Great indeed is the need for our contribution. Great is the challenge to nurses in war. Page Six

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To Miss Ruth Sleeper The editors of Checks wish to express their sxncerest appreciation for her help in publishing this volume.

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Foreword In this volume, we the class of 1944, have set forth a permanent record of our three years in the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing; our experiences, our friends, a chronicle of our training, our discoveries about ourselves and our chosen profession, a report of the newest program, the Cadet Nurse Corps, our memories of the minute things about our School, and the big things we have learned that will make us better able to serve those people needing nursing care and health guidance. Now we are going forth to teach, to nurse the sick, to our response bilities in civilian and military health. We are fully aware of the challenge that the present world upheaval and chaos is placing before us. Military service for some of us will provide adventurous service while others of us must accept the responsibility of helping to maintain high standards of civilian nursing on the diminished staffs of hospitals, public health agencies and schools of nursing. These vital civilian fields are less spectacular than the military one but none the less challenging to our training and our abilities. Looking forward to the readvent of peace among nations, we, the mem- bers of the class of 1944, are preparing to take our places in the reconstruc- tion program throughout the world. We are fortunate in having chosen a profession which is the product of all nations and all peoples. A profession undeterred by barriers of national- ism or racial and religious intolerance. When the nations of the globe to-day emerge from this dark era on the pages of civilized history, nursing will be ready to carry the torch of healing to all parts of the world that its light may shine on all peoples. We, the class of 1944, hope to share in spreading the healing light, not only that, in the glow of the torch, war weary peoples may find a new high in physical, emotional and mental health, but also that nurs- ing may stand by while people again take up duties laid down in war and health services in war torn countries become again self sustaining and effec- tive. Our model and guide, Florence Nightingale, was a nurse in war but she did not cease her efforts to bring health to the ill and maintain health in the well when the military conflict ceased. We, the class of 1944, shall endeavor to carry on the work she initiated, beyond the end of this war. Page Seven