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

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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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DEDICATION We, the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Forty ' four dedicate this edition of Checks to MISS NANCY FRASER who in guarding our health through these three years has embedded herself deep in our hearts.

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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