St Boniface School of Nursing - Estole Fideles Yearbook (St Boniface, Manitoba Canada)

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are we ll Q Ylessage from Mi ss Spice Maybe it is a little late now to talk about “Aims and Objectives” but I have had some in the four years I have been at St. Boniface. I feel like telling them to you because you better than anyone can tell if I have achieved them. I have tried to make learning the basic sciences as easy as possible, as enter¬ taining as possible and as useful as possible. I have tried always to give you warn¬ ing of tests and things but I know this has not always worked out. I have tried to be the same from day to day so you would know how to take me. I have tried to remember what it is like to be a student nurse and to under¬ stand how you are living. I have tried to act as a liaison officer between you and the outside world, par¬ ticularly the world of scientific advances, because I know that you don’t have time to keep up on everything. While working toward all these aims and objectives I have never resisted the desire to tell you about important things in my life. You know that my Mom and Dad are very special people to me. (I like the Dedication of your Year Book.) You know that my older sister is a nurse in New York, and a good one, and that she was my main support while I was in training. You know that my oldest brother practically runs Flin Flon and has a wife who likes to entertain her in-laws, thank goodness, and two awfully nice children. You know that my younger sister lives at home and works in Eaton’s and gets me white stockings from the Mail Order. You know that my next brother, the one who was in Africa, is the metal¬ lurgist at Port Radium and is married to a very nice person and has a daughter. And I think you know that my next brother, Don, was lost on a training flight over Scotland in January 1945. Some of you knew him because he was on Normant for a few days before he went into the R.C.A.F. with an infected finger and he used to come for me in the Nash quite often. My youngest brother is at home going to University and he sometimes came for me too. That was before we (sob) sold the Nash. And you know Isobel Black who lives with me. Or maybe I live with her. Anyway we live together, and like it. So you know most of the important things in my life and that rumor you hear is true. I am going to be married. When? At the time of writing I can’t answer that one. Where? Same answer. Who to? Ah! That’s different. A man from out of this world. Well, practically anyway. He’s from Tennessee and now that he is out of the army he is back in his job with a transportation company. Yes, he is older than I am by a few years. No, he hasn’t been married before. He is a little darker and a 23

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MESSAGE FROM Sr. TROTTIER My Dear Nurses: It is with great pleasure indeed that I accept the privilege of congratulating you on this happy day. The joy which is re¬ flected in your faces today is one which you have been looking forward to for three long years and it is only natural that your heart and soul be filled with great happi¬ ness. The ceremony of your Graduation comes as a public recognition of your suc¬ cess in the field of nursing which you have chosen for your career. You are filled with pride at the thought that you may now go into the wider field of nursing and help those with whom you will come in contact. People will have confidence in you. Do not disappoint them. Let this inspire you in the fulfillment of your daily duties and be an encouragement in your worthwhile task. We, too, are proud of you for we see in each one of you an apostle of health and a source of comfort for the suffering bodies and souls. We have tried to inculcate in you the principles of good nursing inspired by a Christian philos¬ ophy of life. It is your duty now to live up to those principles which are bound to bring you happiness and success. In so doing you will promote not only the health of the body of your patient, but also his mental and spiritual welfare. May God help you always in the task which He inspired you to choose and in which He himself excelled in fulfilling with so great perfection. Sister MELINA TROTTIER, S.G.M. (Asst. Supt. of Nurses) MESSAGE FROM MISS CRAIG I feel it a privilege to be granted this oppor¬ tunity to extend my best wishes and hearty con¬ gratulations to the graduating class of 1946. Having been a student-in-training with the graduating class of this year and this term having been associated with the Nurses’ Home, I still feel that I share in the life of the Residence and do, with you, look forward in real anticipation to this your graduation. Introspection just now will reveal mixed feel¬ ings—anticipation as you stand at a milestone in your career; a feeling of satisfaction as you have completed your formal education, and perhaps a twinge of loneliness as you leave the compan¬ ionship of the Nurses’ Home. About us we see a world just recovering from the shock of World War II. Although the war has been won the need for the professional serv¬ ices of the nurse are just as vital in the schemes of rehabilitation as they were on the battlefront. ness, sympathy and devotion which is symbolized Now, more than ever, the world needs the kind- by the nursing profession. On this momentous day you cannot avoid a moment of retrospection in which you feel a debt of gratitude to the valiant efforts of your pre¬ decessors in the profession and particularly the pioneers of this institution. The high expectations of those who have supervised your training will encourage you as you progress in your vacation. Nursing offers ample opportunity for widening one’s experi¬ ence and knowledge in your chosen field and no service pays higher dividends in satisfaction than that of ministering to your fellowmen. May much happiness be yours. HELEN CRAIG. 22

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little taller than I am and has brown eyes. There is only one thing that he loves better than me and that is fishing! How is it that we got together what with him living so many years in so many far away places and me living practically as many years and always being in some other places? That is the kind of stuff books are made of and I haven’t had time to write the book yet. Could be that when I have no more test papers to mark and no more Year Book contributions to write, when I am keeping house in Memphis, Tennessee, and have the menus all planned (I will have to learn ways to cook fish—where is my friend Skremetka?) and the house all home-like and the garden all flourishing, that I will have some free afternoons to write a book. As I understand it the wisest course is to write a book about things you know, so any book I wrote would have to be about Kildonan and the University of Manitoba and Brooklyn and Chicago and the Winnipeg General and St. Boniface and being in love. You won’t have to read the book because the first part you have heard all about often and the last, you would be much better to try for yourselves. I am putting in an order to have the Year Book sent to me till at least 1950 so I can graduate everybody that is here now. My very best wishes go with this year’s graduates and all the graduates in the making. Sincerely, GRACE SPICE. G Q AS SEEN BY A PATIENT A hospital is a collection of corridors and stairs supported by slippery floors and contributions. A ward is a room attached to a corridor. It contains nurses, beds, patients and fresh air in large quantities. A bed has longitude but no latitude. Its real duty is to beautify the ward. To disarrange a bed is a criminal offence. It is a far, far better thing to have a tidy bed than to be comfortable. A patient is the victim of circumstances—-a conspiracy between doctors and hospital authorities. After he has bided awhile—he realizes why he is called a patient. A nurse is essential for the proper running of the ward. Her chief duty is to watch patients in order to wake them when asleep. The medicine cupboard contains brandy and castor oil—tremendous quantities of each are used. The brandy is used to camouflage the castor oil and it is also used as a restorative when patients feel faint! Patients are never allowed to feel faint! Night commences when blinds are pulled down; day commences when the night nurses have finished their midnight meal. Old patients sleep in the daytime—it is quieter. Lockers are a hospital version of dining room sideboards always placed so that a patient cannot get at them, and really pro¬ vided to gratify the nurses’ curiosity. Lockers do not lock. 24