Mercy College of Nursing - Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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OLIR LADY OF MF-.RCY after a niira( ulous painting ( 1 587) in the rliurcn of St. Puclenziana in Rome. In 1890. Pope Leo XIII desifjnatecl this as the cniMltni ol the Sisters of Mercy

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The next to take over tke administration of the srKooI was Sister Mary Cecilia in 1936. In Novemter of this year, faculty and students were one with tfie Catfiolics of the area in rejoicing that the new episcopal see created by Pope Pius XI comprised the counties of Imperial. Riverside. San Bernardino and San Diego. With eagerness, they looked forward to the arrival of the spiritual shepherd chosen to guide them: His Excellency. Most Rev, Charles Francis Buddy, D.D. Many were privileged to be present at his installation at St. Joseph ' s Cathedral on February 3, 1937, Later they had the happiness of honoring him at a reception held at Mercy Hospital. In 1938, the nurses of California were engaged in formulating a new nurse practice act to be presented to the legislature the following year. Active in lobbying for this Bill was our own Mae Murphy. Signed by Gov- ernor Olson on July 17, 1939, the new act was created to function under the Department of Professional and Vocational Standards. The former chief, Helen Hansen, was retained as the executive secretary for the new Board of Nurse Examiners. In the fall of this year. Sister Mary Baptist returned to Mercy College of Nursing as its Director. Designs were being formulated to commemorate in the spring the half-century mark of the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in San Diego and the erection of the first hospital. In May, 1940, this event was solemnized with an outdoor Solenm High Mass on the grounds of Mercy Hospital. In January, 1941, Sister Mary Beata succeeded Sister . ' Knna Marie as assistant director. Then came December, 1941. and the attack on Pearl Harbor, with its ramifications into every pattern of life. For nursing, there was a sharing in civil defense activity and, in 1943, the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps came into being. This bill, sponsored in Congress by Mrs. Frances Payne Bolton, extended financial aid to young women desiring to enter schools of nursing. Mercy College participated in this program. Its alumnae responded to the urgent need for nurses by entering the military service of World War II. Replaced by Sister Mary Geraldinc for four years. Sister Mary Beata resumed the function of assisting with the educational program in the summer of 194fi. The records of the school show that 1947 was ushered in with the resignation of the executive secretary for the Board of Nurse Examiners and the appointment on May 1 of Ruth Esther Feider. Nationally, a decade had been devoted to the unification of accrediting activities in nursing. At the first meeting of the Joint Board of Directors of the six national nursing organizations, on January 29, 1949, the assembled group authorized a National Nursing .Accrediting Service. On February 28, 1949, the students at Mercj ' again had the privilege of being hosts to the famed replica of Our Lady of Fatima, as they had on October 8. 1948. The scholarship launched by the Alumnae in memory of Mae Murphy was awarded to a student entering the August class. On September 12 of this same year, all participated in the ground-breaking ceremonies for the new Chapel. The blessing of Our Lady ' s Chapel on lulv 14, 1930, was a fitting tribute marking sixty years of labor by the Sisters of Mercy in the cause of community health. Long-range planning for student experience continued during these years. Final arrangements lor psychiatric affiliation were completed late in 1951, with the first group of students leaving tor Compton Sanitarium on tin- following .lanuary 20. Nineteen fifty-two was to be an eventful year. The organizational machinery reconstructing nursing on a national level reached a climax at the Biennial Convention held at Atlantic City, N. J., in lune, with the adoption of a two-organization structure: the ANA., and the merging of the N.L.N.E., the N.O.P.H.N., and A. C.S.N, to form the new National League for Nursing. At home, too, there was cause for rejoicing. A letter written on August I 1 by Helen Nahni. Director of N.N.A.S., stated that Mercy ' s application for accreditation was accepted for survey and that the two visitors would be with us for the week of August 23th. The evaluation of our program as submitted by Mildred Schwier of N.N.A.S. ,in l Margaret Metzger, regional representative, was analyzed by the Board of Review on November 19lh. The prestige of national recognition by full accreditation was gratifying to faculty and students. Less than a month before, Mercy students had been hosts to the students of California schools of nursing for a one-day assembly to organize the Student Nurse Association of California. The date was October 28. Within a few weeks followed the announcement that negotiations were completed with the San Diego County General Hospital to replace icable disease experience with a tuberrulnsis alfilialion. On January 5, 1953, the first students were assigned to this comnum service Thus dawned the golden year of Jubilee! The fails narrated necessarily can only be partial points of tr.msilion. So, loo, the persons mentioned. 1 he educational unit of nursing for its effectiveness was dependent upon the cooperation of many who in this historical sketch remain in the background. Without the wholehearted support of higher superiors and hospital admin- istrators, of supervisors, head nurses and nursing staff, there would have been no model clinical field in which to demonstrate a Christ-like care for the whole person whom in a moment of time we call a patient: without the scientific principles of the faculty embracing the dignity of man and a willingness on the part of students to accept the responsibility of striving for professional maturity, there would be no Mercy College of Nursing celebrating its Golden Jubilee. As we look to the future, we see on the horizon new trends in the education of the nurse. 1 he love springing from faith which sustained the foundress has been transmitted to her successors. To them nursing symbolizes a means of serving God in ministering preventively or actively to a humanity ill in mind or body. In doing this, they are mindful that material accomplish- ments may be an estimate of merit, but a success which is enduring is one that touches and is touched by God. and the ultimate goal of Mercy College of Nursing embodies eternal values— Virtue only is noble. Gratitude to God fills the heart for the blessings of the first half-cenutry. For an equal measure of aihievenient during the next quinfenary, we turn with confidence to the Mntli.r of Him Wli,)ii, we serve: the Mother of Mercy, our ideal and our compassionate advocate.

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S » - ill y HHjPJ ? . . . Hor Commencement . . ... Her Advancement . .