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

Page 27 text:

Now the air was filled with the anticipation of junior year. Willingly we would part with the lowly “S-1” title, shrug off the weights of twelve long months and make our lives as portable as possible for our coming travels. We would bequeath to the incoming freshman of this and all years, the summation of the comprehensive experience of the first year: Ya Gotta Wanna! OCTOBER 16, 1846 The Beginning of a Great Era In Surgery OCTOBER 16, 1963 The Beginning of a Great Error In Surgery 23

Page 26 text:

Came that morning in November, our first day on the wards. Bihless, we came in clusters, weak-kneed from excitement and fear. At last we were really nurses— or so we thought. Dutifully, we noted the fire equipment, the nurses’ station, the medicine closet, and the tail-capped Seniors with their knowing smiles, at once benevolent and sympathetic. We met the watchful eyes of our instructors over that pile of linen under which, somewhere, was our patient. No sooner had we mastered one technique than new challenges faced us: The bedbath, the Clinitest, foot care, and that most challenging first in a student’s career, the first injection. As the summer came, we would spend our lunch hour on the now extinct Bulfinch lawn, or suggest to the T.L. that our patient might like to go outside for a while (right, Mrs. X?). On rainy days we would await the dinner hour on White 3A, where there was always something new to see. la 22

Page 28 text:

The Spirit of ’66 A ladder, lightbulbs and lollipops: these are the tools of the trade of a devoted MGH employee, knowm affectionately by every student nurse simply as “Dave.” Dave is the official keeper of lightbulbs at the MGH and conscientiously replaces flickering bulbs in many areas of the hospital. But his real specialty is befriending student nurses. It is no secret that freshmen feel insecure and uncertain; even taking p.o. temperatures can seem an enormous task when you’ve never done it before. But somehow, just when a freshman’s confidence reaches its lowest ebb (and that can be pretty low) she encounters Dave (or is it perhaps the other way round ) . His eyes alight with a knowing twinkle, he pauses and offers his vote of confidence— a lollipop. Be it red, yellow or green, this extra bit of encouragement is often all that is needed to keep a tired freshman going; this, and the knowledge that Dave believes in her, and in all of us, and has accepted us as part of the “MGH family.” 24