Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing - Blue and White Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 16 text:

find something to criticize. That, after all, is human nature, which can, at times be at its best and at other times in the same day and in the same individual be at its worst. How significant is the nurses approach to her patients’ problems? Recently a visitor to the Winnipeg General Hospital was sitting beside the bed of an elderly, very sick man. This visitor reported the following incident to me. The patient had been very ill for over a month, requiring a great deal of nursing care. In came a young student nurse who had been on the ward during the first part of the patient’s illness but who had been transferred a week before to a nother service in the hospital. With a cheerful smile she said simply: ”1 am off duty for the moment so I thought I would run down here just to see how you are getting along. I believe you look much better. I see that you have a visitor so I’ll come again to see you”. Such thoughtfulness is excellent treatment and surely contributed something of real value to this patient’s recovery. This kind of personal interest and individual approach takes place in many forms and in many rooms in the hospital day and night. It is never recorded on the hospital chart and is observed, at the time, only by the grateful patient. It serves to give meaning and nobility to the profession of nursing. The message that I would like to leave with the graduating class of 1962 is, in essence, that you are living in the most exciting and most rewarding period in the history of mankind. Never in the history of medicine, in which nursing plays an increasingly important role, have there been such opportunities to make of it a truly noble profession. Never before have the ’’healing” professions, as a group, had such opportunities to assist at performing miracles with the aid of new specific drugs unknown thirty years ago. A relatively short time ago many diseases such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, smallpox, poliomyelitis, puerperal and surgical infections and others, carried a high death rate and a high incidence of persistent chronic invalidism. Now, all of these dread diseases and others can be prevented or cured. Modern hospital facilities and many new operative techniques are available today to assist the surgeon and his staff correct deformities and remove and cure disease more safely and in much shorter time than was possible two or three decades ago. You are indeed fortunate to have arrived at your graduation in the year 1962. Now the community and the nation are being presented with such challenging opportunities for cooperation between many public and private agencies in the care of the sick, in education and research. The total health program of a nation has become a vast co-operative effort. In spite of the many difficulties, obstacles and misunderstandings inherent in the need to adjust to new situ¬ ations we will, I am confident, gradually evolve and finally achieve an effective partnership in an all out attack on basic human needs and on many common and pressing human problems without losing during the period of transition, our present high standards of individual care, our freedom of action or of choice. You as a nurse and as a citizen of this country will participate in this great adventure. May I congratulate you on the successful completion of your course of nursing education and training and at the same time wish you happiness and fulfillment of your hopes in the years that lie ahead. P.H.T. Thorlakson, M.D. 12

Page 18 text:

AGNA BERGANT One of the most travelled members of our class, her knowl¬ edge of many languages is a great asset. Always eager to lend a helping hand. DIANE BOWES The owner of those sparkling brown eyes, Bow¬ ser is always willing to help with any project. She ' s the class live-wire and enter¬ tainer. JOYCE BROWN A girl with sparkling black hair and a quiet manner, Joyce is always seen coming or going. She sure made a certain Saskatchewan!te take notice. CLINTON CAIRNS Being the first male graduate of the W.G.H., we are very proud of him. Always will¬ ing and cheerful, we give tri¬ bute to his great a chi evements ! IRENE CHRISTISON This tall, pretty lass al ways has time for a joke, date, or phone call. Fashion con¬ scious, she sews creations directly from Vogue . 14