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

Page 14 text:

Science Department Knowledge of chemistry, anatomy, pharmacology, microbiology, and all the other mysterious sciences is slowly and surely made our own through the efforts of Miss Sherwin and the staff of the Science Department. From our Probie Days until all classes are completed and requirements passed this department guides our progress and complements our ward duty to give us a full preparation upon which to build as nurses of the future. Nursing Department A m One of our first contacts with teaching at M.G.H. is Miss Perkins and her Nursing Arts Department. During our period of “probation we sit and listen with awe to the theory of bed- side nursing care. Shortly afterward we struggle to put this theory to practical use in the Nursing School Classroom — still under their watch- ful eyes. As we gradually master tech- niques and apply them in our ward work it is to this department that we look for that nod of approval.

Page 13 text:

That Be . . Here we come for approval of student activities. Advice on nursing and personal problems can be found. In short, the action for any grievance, the solution to any problem, the support for any cause is sought after and usually found in T.S.O. It is here that the Administrative-Stu- dent bonds are strengthened. Miss Hardeman Miss Fraser [ 9 ]

Page 15 text:

Supervisors When we were very young, we didn’t know much about supervisors. Oh, we saw somewhat familiar, although unnamed, white figures appear on the ward, during our few hours of duty, armed with looseleaf notebooks of some mysterious “day reports.” Four months of ignorance, and then when we started full time duty the nebulous char- acters began to assume definite forms and personalities. During those understaffed, wartime years, when for an hour or two there might be only young students on the ward, it was with mingled awe and relief that we would see approaching Miss Dowling, Miss Bates or another. It was perhaps on our first evenings of relief, and our first night duties, that we most appreciated these women. “Supervisor, please, for 480,” and soon “This is Miss Pooles, or Miss Hinkley, or another,” — quietly assuming the responsibility for the great or small problem that was ours. Theirs is a great responsibility. To have at their fingertips sufficient knowledge of all patients; name, diagnosis, and general condi- tion so that they may accurately judge the situation as it is communicated to them by telephone. Some of us may aspire sometime, here or elsewhere, to fill a like position. These women have been our examples, and have taught us more than they can realize.