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

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.

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