Watts School of Nursing - White Cap Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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JOSEPHINE BRANCH RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA “Tgnorance—no, on second thought— I mean innocence is bliss.” VIRGINIA BURNS HICKORY, NORTH CAROLINA “Late arrival, but what an addition.” VERNELLE CAMERON JONESBORO HEIGHTS, NORTH CAROLINA “Mischief is her pastime!” PIALG Ea

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CLASS HISTORY N SEPTEMBER 30th, 1946, twenty-five excited and bewildered young girls embarked upon a course of training that would set them apart from their lay sisters and give them a new purpose in life. While we walked down the halls of Wyche House for the first time, each of us | wondered if she were really following the vocation for which she was best qualified. As the days passed we became engrossed in our studies and in adjusting ourselves to the new life of a student nurse. There was a lot of hard work to be done but dormitory life had its com- pensations as well. We remember with a smile the “pie beds’ we made of onions, salt and nuts, and the parties after lights out. These and the many other childish pranks we played on one another helped to relieve the monotony of dormitory life. We remember also the seriousness with which we attended our morning devotions at seven a.m. as well as the earnestness with which we assembled in our classes All of us will remember the names of Oscar and Mary Chase to our dying day. They held the secrets of our early untrained treatment and the resultant blunders we made, but their lips are forever sealed. Bless them! We shall never forget the pungent odors created in the chemistry classes which were only excelled by the concoctions we created in the nutrition classes. Even now it is difficult to visualize how any food which looked so delicious could be so devoid of taste! We remember how proud we were when our “prelem” days ended and we donned our new white caps. Naturally enough we were all very happy to get our first three-week vacation. It was during this brief interlude that we first felt the pride that comes from being a part of the nursing profession, when despite our protestations, our families and friends looked upon us as nurses. When we returned from vacation we weren’t the same bewildered young girls of the preceding year but we fancied ourselves competent young women. It wasn’t until our second year’s work commenced that we realized how wholly inadequate our knowledge was. With this realization came a new humility which we shall never lose. During the clinical period that followed we entered the operating room, donned our masks and gowns to assist the surgeons for the first time. This new experience was thrilling and yet frightening in that we feared we might inadvertently make a mistake which possibly would destroy the life we had been trained to save. During this second phase of our training we were endoctrinated in some of the mysteries of birth in our obstetrics class. We remember with amusement how we had to climb up on the beds in the elevator to get the prospective mothers from Ward B to the delivery room. We also recall the long nights we spent “birthing babies.” At the end of our second year we were given a vacation of three weeks to relax so that we would have renewed strength to embark on our third and last year of training. During this third and last phase of our training we sewed the black bands on our caps and enjoyed the senior privileges for the first time. Now we could date our favorite beau at least two nights a week ‘til midnight. We also began the fascinating study of psychiatry. Soon we will leave our alma mater, but before we do there remains one other great hurdle in our studies and that is the State Board Exams. If we pass these tests we will be confronted with the most difficult test of all—the world’s test; the one for which we have been working, studying, and preparing these many months. In conclusion, we, of the graduating class would like to go on record as stating that we are confident that we have been given the very best education possible at Watts Hospital but that we are now more humble than ever in that we realize a truly good nurse never knows all that is to be known about her profession. PAGE 24

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fv SARAH COLLIER } GARNER, NORTH CAROLINA “T agree with no man’s opinion, I have my own!” MARTHA COOPER WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA } “They say the finest comes in packages small: If that is true she’s ahead of us all.” SARA DALLAS NATHALIE, VIRGINIA “A long drawl and a winsome grin Helps Dallas all her friends to win.”