“The nursing program was a far cry from the organized and in-depth academic programs today. But the problems of the past had to be treated with the same courage and the same tact as they are today… [the curriculum] was more than just lectures, they were making you an all round better person. You were marked on your deportment and passion.” Sister Fabian (42)
Prior to 1949, Newfoundland schools of nursing offered a three year diploma program leading to graduation as a nurse. The program of study in each school was similar in format and content which evolved over time. Nurses who graduated in the 1930s received a somewhat different education than those graduating in the 1940s in that new content and clinical experiences were added. The nursing program was based on an apprenticeship model. Ward experience was a major component of the program and students worked in the hospital providing a variety of patient related services. Moakler, “I would say [it was] no longer than three months (before we went on the wards). It was work for service then, you know.” The participants’ stories clearly reflect the hospital’s reliance on students to provide service and some might say that service took precedence over the education of the student. Yet, they were required to achieve a certain level of academic and clinical competency to graduate from the program. Whether or not the nursing program prepared them for what awaited them in practice was another matter.
Probation Period or Introduction to Nursing: Upon entering the school of nursing students began a probationary period when they were called a ‘probie’(short for probationer). Some did not consider themselves a student nurse until they had successfully completed this period. The structure of the probationary period varied as did its length of three to six months. Those entering nursing in the 1930s were sent to the wards to work almost immediately with little or no preparation. Strong (36), “We did not have one bit of practical training at that time. I remember one month after I was on the ward I was asked to do the beds… I had never made a bed.” Whiteway reported a similar experience, “We went right on the floor right from the street… the nurses showed you… we didn’t practice or nothing… we just went in and did it (on the patient).” Although she also went on the ward immediately upon entering the school, Merrigan reported that ward duties were scheduled around lectures, “We used to do up the patients by washing them and giving them a bath… after we had our lectures. We would also give them their bedpans; we used to get a lot of complaints that the bedpans were cold so we would put some hot water over them to make it warm.”
For those entering nursing school in the 1940s it seemed that the probation period was a combination of clinical and classroom work. As in the 1930s, students went to work in the hospital immediately, however duties assigned to the probationer did not require any formal training and could be performed by the ‘probie’ under supervision. Along with patient care, students performed duties which provided essential hospital services. This reflected a hospital environment where the nurse did all things (other than doctors’ work) related to the care of the sick. Woodland (48) went into nursing on a Tuesday and “… on [the following] Monday I was on duty. I was only cleaning bedpans, changing diapers on the children’s ward and feeding babies.”
Avery provides a glimpse of the hospital duties assigned to a probationer in the 1940s: “We had classes every day. The first six months we did not go on to the floors. We were only permitted to look around. During the first little while that I was over in the hospital I was down in the central supply room folding bandages. We made our own dressings back then… we had to cut them… then they would make up the trays… and the things that came off the trays would come back to the central supply room and you would have to clean up the bowls and wash them. Finally, the trays would be made up and autoclaved. But we didn’t get very much time over in the hospital [with patients] at that time. We spent most of our time in the classroom.” Penney (ffl), who entered nursing school in August, gives some insight into how the students’ education was ‘fit’ into the needs of the hospital, “The first day I went in, they sent me straight to the ward area… it wasn’t a ward. Sister took me up to make sponges. In September, class started and… we had class every day, every afternoon, usually two hours… then we had assignments for the night, so we didn’t get off duty until… well, you were fortunate if you got off at eight… you were supposed to be off at seven.” There was little doubt that the probationers provided a vital service within hospitals.
Although classes were offered during the probationary period, their frequency and duration varied. Lectures and ward duty were so intertwined that classes were primarily scheduled during the workday in the students’ time off and when they could be released from the wards. The probationary period ended with some form of examination and if successful, the student received her cap. Receiving the cap was a significant achievement for the student as it marked her first success in nursing and the cap was evidence of that success to staff and patients. Merrigan, “We had to work for the cap when we were in training… for six months. If you did not pass you were booted out.” Woodland, “Well you had to pass all your exams… and then you became a student nurse. Before that you were a ‘probie’.” Successful completion of the probation period was clearly a milestone in the students’ education; viewed almost as a right of passage.
Education Versus Service: Successful completion of the probationary period was an introduction to real life as a nurse; students immediately became part of the ward staff. As the school of nursing was not a separate entity from the hospital, a priority for the school was service to the agency and student nurses were considered a source of staffing. Ward duties came first and classes were ‘fitted’ around the needs of the ward or the students’ work schedule. Following probation, students worked 12 hour shifts (often six shifts per week) on days or nights and usually had a two hour break. Even when working nights students were expected to get up for class and then go back on night duty. If the student did not understand the expectations when she entered the school of nursing she very quickly learned her role and adapted accordingly. Sister Fabian probably best reflects the students’ acceptance of and adaptation to the responsibility, “In the 40s students did most of the nursing care even in their first and second years. I remember in training, we did take on a lot of responsibility. Looking back now, I didn’t think I was taking on that much; I thought I was capable.”
Expectations of the Student: The duties of the student nurse were clearly defined depending on the year or stage of the program. The color of the students’ uniform identified the year the student was in and what duties she could be expected to perform. In the 1930s and 40s nurses did not have a myriad of medications to administer nor high tech equipment to monitor; their duties were reflective of the health care delivery of the day. For those who studied in the 1930s (before the discovery of antibiotics) first year nursing duties focused on cleanliness with the goal of preventing infection. The importance of cleaning is evident in Whiteway’s story of her first year: “You weren’t allowed to do anything first… cleaning was the first thing you had to do. You had to clean the bathrooms. You had to wash the beds. We had to sweep the floors. We didn’t have to serve the meals just bring around the plates. And to see that everybody had something to eat (laughter). And there’s a lot of things we had to do right. And you had to keep the linen tidy. And, if there was any mending to do, you had to take it to sewing room.” In addition to nursing responsibilities, first year student nurses of the 1930s and 40s performed many tasks that today fall under the realm of support staff. Moakler tells of her duties as a first year student on evenings, “When we were on evenings… we had to make up lunches for the thirty patients, tea, and coffee and toast but the patients were marvelous in these days. I mean they’d come out and they’d help you to get the tea ready. Then you had to wash up all these dishes afterwards. Just wash them up, not sterilize them.”
While the duties assigned to a first year student might not be considered difficult, it was the volume of work and scope of responsibility that could be considered overwhelming. On the job training was the teaching method used where students learned by ‘doing.’ At night students often worked alone with only a supervisor or graduate nurse to assist them if necessary. As compared to today, students were not oriented to their duties or ward routines but were expected to perform the necessary care for a ward of patients. Intensive care units and recovery rooms did not exist so students dealt with a broad range of acuity levels. The students were expected to work hard, adapt to whatever came their way and do so without question. Dewling (48) reveals what it was like for students immediately following the probation period, “The first six months we were helped along a bit, but after that we were thrown in the water and told to swim. It was kind of scary. My first night duty was on Alexander ward, which was pediatrics… from babies to 10 years old and there was 26 or 27 of them. I was alone and had never changed a diaper in my life so, someone showed me how to change a diaper. Also I did not know how to take down the side of the crib; I had no experience with cribs whatsoever. After that there was nothing that would frighten me. After the first six months, we were on night duty alone… you’d get a report from the head nurse. Then, when she would say ‘goodnight,’ you were on your own for the rest of the night. I was never so scared in my life as I was that night. One of the things that I remember about that ward was not having enough diapers. We used cloth diapers and there was never enough during the night, so, about 4:00 or 5:00 o’clock in the morning, you were up in the utility room washing diapers and putting them on the radiator to dry so you could change babies again when they woke up. After a while I got used to that.” Avery shares a similar experience, “It was scary first. I wasn’t completely used to the Grace. Because the first months were in the classroom and then upstairs to the 3rd floor which was medical and I had been in the central supply room; but I had not had enough experience. It was like sending a baby away from her mother too soon. But I went out, and I did start to enjoy it.”
Student responsibilities and workload increased in the second year although the general duties of a second year student’s working days did not differ significantly from those of a first year. Additional nursing procedures were introduced; the number of patients the student cared for increased and the students continued to attend classes. Both in the 1930s and 40s rest was key to recovery from an illness so many of the nurses’ duties focused on the care and comfort of bed patients. Whiteway, “You advanced a little bit when you got to year two. You were allowed to do enemas. Of course, you weren’t allowed to do it by yourself [at first]… patients were kept in bed for ten days and I would give four bed baths in the morning before I went to class.” Puddister (47), “During second year we had a bit more responsibility, we were put in charge of eight patients who were all bed patients.”
Although working alone on nights was not a new experience for a second year student, the increased workload provided additional pressure. Oakley (31), “Another girl and I were on night duty on the second floor with 42 patients. When they did the operations at that time, they had to come back to their beds and some were done late in the day and we would have them dying in their beds. I remember one patient in a private room was dying, there were only two of us on duty. So, we had to run back and forth just to see if she was still alive because that is all we could do.” Penney also reveals the student’s level of responsibility; “You were in charge of a whole floor as a student… we didn’t have a graduate except the Sister who was on and she was in charge of the whole house. She’d be the only registered nurse we’d have on. You did the Case Room alone… all by yourself.” Higgins related her experience on nights that nearly resulted in her leaving nursing, “I remember as a student it was very hectic, the 12 hours, and I know that one year… the second year, I did four months of lectures, two months and then I was off a month. I landed back again and that’s where I almost gave up nursing. I was on the second floor of the old General and… there were 40 patients on that floor and there was a student assigned to assist me. Before the report was out, she was called down to outpatients and so I was alone with medications. You probably had two or three bloods going, IV’s, and you had your medications at 6:30 or 7:00, your 10:00 o’clocks, lunches for everybody, back rubs for everybody (laughter). You were expected to do all that, and you were alone. You know, you had all that to do by 11:00 or 12:00 o’clock. The minister or priest always visited in the evening and you had to get a special tray ready and have that ready for the night supervisor to serve the clergy when he came but sometimes you were trying to answer lights and check on the patients and, in those days, besides what was going on routinely, you had all the Penicillins and shots so you had a tray of that to give, plus your medications, plus your IV’s. So you had all of that to keep track of and to pour your meds for the next period.” Mifflin aptly sums up the students’ ability to adapt to situations such as these, “If you were on night duty, you would be on by yourself. But that too seemed second nature after a while.”
The role of the senior or third student did not differ significantly from that of the graduate nurse; they could be in charge on days with the associated responsibilities. In each year of the program additional tasks were introduced with senior students being primarily responsible for sterilizing equipment and doing dressings. For some, third year was their first experience administering medications. Story (48), “[In] third year we were almost assistant to the head nurse. The third year student was the one who did all of the sterilizing and the scrubbing of equipment. It was quite ridiculous because here was a girl who knew everything and here she was scrubbing equipment. The night nurse’s duty was to fill up the great big sterilizing machine and get it going so that when the third year student came on, she only had to put the equipment in.” Bruce, “When we became senior students we would be in charge of the ward with supervision… if we wanted something or needed advice. We would fill out our reports, make sure the medications were given on time, and any patient that needed special care was looked after. Visiting hours was usually from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., so, you would probably do a little bit of paper work. Patients were looked after for the night with back rubs and made comfortable and the lights were turned down. Then, at around daylight we would begin, what we called, tidying the ward. Fresh linens would be put out and whatever was necessary for when Sister came on in the morning to fill out her report. Nurse, “We had to boil in the big boiler the rubber tubing that was used for the IV’s and make our trays up with forceps. So [as a] third year student really… it was the most work you did and the most responsibility of that was to have sterile trays. So you had to sterilize the big boiler and then you got the forceps and sterile towels and set up all the trays.” In addition to her nursing duties, Tobin tells of other tasks required of a third year student on nights, “I remember when I was a third year student on nights we would have to go to the basement [in the dark] around 6:00 a.m. to stoke the furnace to make sure it was burning for the day staff. I used to be frightened to death! At night all we had to give out was an Emperin. The [medication] tray was only about six inches by four inches and we had all of the cards on that. The biggest thing you would have [to do] would be the dressings and stoops (a type of dressing).”
Scheduling of Classes: Classes were held throughout the three years and on occasion the A and B groups did classes together, particularly if the classes were small. Classes were usually held in the day, but not always, and ‘fit’ into the students’ ward schedule regardless of where the class was held or where or when the student was working. There was little, if any, consideration of whether this might impact on the student. According to Griffen (47), “… you worked ‘til 7:00 in the night… you might have two hours class during that time. And then, at night, you had to go to class if you didn’t. We’d have probably an hour/an hour and a half class after supper. After 7:00 o’clock.” When asked if she was tired in class after working 12 hours, “Oh, my dear! I’m tellin’ you… I didn’t know the difference. We didn’t know what tired was, I suppose. It wasn’t in our vocabulary (laughter).” When working nights students were required to attend classes. Students got off nights at 7:00 a.m. [with luck], went to bed, had to get up at lunch time, go to class in the afternoon, have supper, then be ready to report on duty at 7:00 p.m. for another 12 hour shift. Penney, “You had to get up in the afternoon to go to class. You just got up at whatever time class was; usually 2:00 o’clock. We had class and then we went to our supper and went straight on duty.” Oakley, “We were on night duty and we would have to dress in uniform at 2:00 o’clock and go to a class. One day I had been on nights doing Ears, Eyes, Nose, and Throat. So, Dr. Carnell asked me to give the definition of yawning because I did a lot of it. I felt like throwing something at him.” Classes were scheduled during the student’s break period in the day so if a class was scheduled during those two hours the student did not get any time off. Woodland, “We got two hours off every work day… and [during] your two hours off, if you had a class, well it was tough. You know, you went to class in your two hours off.” When students were out at other hospitals for clinical experience they returned to their home school for classes. Nurse, “There was classes every day and you had to get there from wherever.” Classes at Memorial College were offered at night which meant the student had additional travel time. French, “I took chemistry [at the university]… and we had to be up there by 8:00 o’clock at night and we never got off of work until 7:00 o’clock. We had to be in at 10:00 o’clock and we had to walk up and down because we could not afford taxis. We would have our supper at about 5:30 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. and then we would go back to work until 7:00 p.m.” Higgins also attended classes at Memorial College in the third year, “In the last six months before graduation students were like a senior nurse on the floor… you did everything with 12 hour duties and sometimes you went to Memorial for your lecture and you got back 4:00 o’clock and you really only had time to get ready if you were doing nights 7:00 o’clock. You had to get supper and go on at 6:30 p.m. so you were only getting four to five hours sleep that day, and this happened periodically during the week.”
Class Content: The courses taught in nursing school in the 1930s and 40s were similar to those taught today. However, both the volume and complexity of these courses have changed dramatically for students currently studying nursing. The nursing program consisted of lectures and demonstrations by doctors and nurses in traditional areas such as medical and surgical nursing and obstetrics. Students were taught about diseases prevalent at the time such as Tuberculosis (Tb) nursing and in the absence of other categories of health care workers such as dieticians, students learned additional skills including the preparation of therapeutic diets. Each school offered similar courses with minor variations. For example, at St. Clare’s students had a course called “Religion and Ethics,” however these differences were more related to the philosophy of the agency than to the nursing program per se. Very rarely was theory taught concurrently with clinical experiences. Students might have classes in pediatrics or psychiatry long before they went to work in these areas and there would be few if any lectures when the student was in these areas. Those who graduated prior to the mid 1930s completed the entire nursing program in the parent agency although General students did go to the Grace Hospital for obstetrics but only when there was sufficient nursing staff to release them from the wards. Obstetrics would have been one of the few times when students had lectures specific to the clinical area in which they were working. Beginning in 1935, affiliations were introduced to the program where students worked in outside agencies to gain experience in services such as psychiatry and communicable diseases.
The curriculum was made up of courses such as Fundamentals of Nursing, Nursing Arts, Nursing History, Professional Adjustments, Medical and Surgical Nursing, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Obstetrics. Science support courses included Anatomy and Physiology, Matera Medica (drugs and solutions), Microbiology, Psychology and Chemistry. Other support courses included First Aid and Emergency, Personal Hygiene and Ethics of Nursing. In addition to lectures, students had demonstrations of basic nursing procedures such as bathing, making beds, doing dressings and giving bedpans. Sister Fabian outlines the early curriculum for nursing students at St. Clare’s, “There were formal classes… the major subjects had classes like Surgery, Medicine, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics. Some of the courses that we did included Personal Hygiene, Nursing Arts, Professional Adjustments, First Aid and Emergency, History of Nursing, Religion and Ethics, Microbiology, Psychology, Chemistry, Pharmacology, Doses and Solutions, and Diet Therapy. They were short courses of only 10 to 15 hours… that was in the 40s. We had 200 hours of Dermatology, Surgery and Operating Room (OR) Techniques, and Psychiatry.” According to Sister Fabian, education in the 1930s and 40s had a broader purpose than just lectures, “[The curriculum] was more than just lectures, they were making you an all around better person. You were marked on your deportment and passion.”
Given the emphasis on a university education for today’s nurses, it was interesting to discover that nursing students in the 1940s did chemistry and dietetics at Memorial College where they were given lectures and demonstrations in these subjects. Dietetics was taught by Edna Baird and chemistry taught by a Mr. Hickman. As early as the mid 1930s, nursing students were taught dietetics by a dietician. Godden, “We had a dietician and we had diet classes… we went for Dietetics.” However, it is unclear if she did the course at Memorial College.
The Teachers: Doctors played a key role in the education of nurses particularly in the early 1930s. In Oakley’s case “… doctors taught my entire nursing course. I remember Dr. Burden’s lectures. He said that Aspirin should be put on the poison list. We also had Dr. Bennett, Dr. Moores and Dr. Roberts.” Whiteway was also taught by doctors but she recalled the role of the nurses in teaching students, “The nurse in charge of the ward taught us… like on the job training… there were no instructors then.”
By the late 1930s, nurses became the primary instructors of student nurses although doctors continued to be involved in their education. Dalley, Mifflin and Merrigan, all graduates of the Grace, reported that “… the supervisors taught the classes… Miss Thomas, Miss Benson and Miss Strickland.” When asked if she had been taught by doctors, Merrigan replied, “No. But one doctor used to give us classes over at Memorial. He taught us Chemistry.” Ashbourne (42), “Elizabeth Bell Rogers taught Anatomy and Physiology, and Pauline Sheppard taught Orthopedic Nursing. Mona Smith taught Nursing and Genetics… Matera Medica. Classes covered such topics as personal hygiene, bedmaking, bathing and feeding patients. Mabel Smith was a nurse… she gave us lectures. She was more or less a teacher.” Bruce, “Our nursing director did our lectures, and the associate director did a lot. We spent a lot of time in the demonstration room… learned all of our procedures.” Avery, “We were taught by both [nurses and doctors]. Miss Vey was our instructor, she taught us nursing procedures and things like that. We would go down and go through all of the things that you would do in the hospital in your first year. We were taught to make beds, to dress babies, bath babies, do dressings, and give bedpans.” According to Penney, “The Sisters [who were nurses] were mostly educators. I don’t recall having anybody… a few doctors for classes but mainly the Sisters. We had a different Sister for each subject, and the doctors would come in. That would be in our second year we started having the doctors.” Dewling, “There were several instructors… we probably had three. Pauline Sheppard was one of them… and there was another girl named Ford. Pauline did most of the clinical stuff and Ford did the principle and procedures. Doctors did the majority of our lectures as well as write our exams. Nurses had nothing to do with our teaching except for organizing it. Actually, nursing did not come in very much, except for how to do manual things. But we were good little mini doctors.”
While doctors continued to be involved in nursing education, there seemed to be a clear distinction between what was taught by nurses and by doctors. The nurse teachers focused on the nursing content while the doctors taught the medical piece of the program. Each doctor gave lectures in his own speciality. Sister Fabian, “Doctors gave a lot of the lectures… they would lecture us for hours and that was a lot for the doctors to do.” According to Story, “The doctors taught us mostly everything. The doctors did all of the teaching for free.” Subsequently, the doctor’s time became another factor to be considered when scheduling classes. Penney, “We would go out for classes sometimes because the three hospitals would combine. I remember doing psychiatry and having to go to the General for their lectures… because they used the one doctor… for the three classes. It was cheaper that way!” Woodland shares a similar story: “Then we went to the General for a few classes… Pediatrics and another one, I believe it might have been Public Health, because the doctors used to teach the classes. And it was easier for them to have them all in the one place. Dr. Tom Anderson taught Pediatrics, Dr. Miller taught Public Health.”
Testing: Examinations were the method used to determine a students’ knowledge and competency. Although students wrote exams throughout the program, two sets of exams seem to be particularly important: those written at the end of the probationary period leading to receipt of the cap and the registration exams at the completion of the nursing program. Students were tested using an oral exam or a demonstration of a procedure but mostly the exams consisted of written essay questions. Whiteway, “I was there six months before you’d get your cap. And you had to have your examinations then… in December and an oral exam and I had to put on a spiral bandage so I did it all and I passed it and I got my cap.” Students wrote school exams which were prepared by doctors and often corrected by them as well. Nurses had very little to do with the examination of students and their work. French, “We just wrote the exams from the school and… doctors gave us lectures and we wrote exams on the lectures.” Puddister, “We wrote tests and exams every term. Final exams were in June; the doctors would make up these exams.” In addition to exams, Sister Fabian mentioned a report which was likely an evaluation of a students’ performance on the ward: “Most of the lectures were given on the floor… the rotation was for two months. You had instruction as well as practical and at the end of your tour of duty, you were given an exam and then a report was written to the School of Nursing.”
Registration exams were introduced in the province by the Government of Newfoundland in 1937. Even after 1937 nurses were not required to write the provincial Registered Nurse (RN) exams although many of the graduates did. Oakley did not have to write RN exams when she graduated and missed the opportunity to have them waived when the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland was formed. However, in order to work she had to be registered so she wrote the RN exams when she returned to the province in 1956. “My girl was in training, so, I studied her lectures and wrote my RN the same time as she did.” Oakley passed the exams despite having completed her program 24 years earlier. Whiteway also didn’t have to write the RN exams when she graduated but opted to do so five years later: “There wasn’t any registered nurses then [when I graduated]… we had a month’s lectures before we wrote the RN exam. We had to write a paper… and we had to write on everything we didn’t know anything about.”
While the Government of Newfoundland administered the exams and licensed nurses, it was doctors who set and corrected the exams and signed the licensing certificate. Dewling, “I will show you my registration certificate; there is not a nurse’s signature on it.” Nurses had minimal involvement in the certification process of those planning to practice nursing in the province and subsequently, the registered nurses were very medically focused. Barron (49) reveals the medical orientation of the exams, “[The exams] were short and long answers. One of the questions was to explain about the procedure for artificial pneuomothorax… I knew it all anyway.” Barron was diagnosed with Tb of the lung in her third year and had to leave the program for treatment. Her lung was artificially collapsed by 75% for two years. Towards the end of that time, she returned to complete her nursing program. During her two hours off each afternoon, she would take the bus (or hitch a ride) out to the Sanatorium, have her lung collapsed and be back on duty by 4:00 p.m.
In order to be eligible to write the RN exams, students had to complete a set of required courses with a set number of lecture hours in each course. Also they were required to complete a set number of clinical hours in their nursing program. Griffen, “I know when I went to write my RN I had been so sick that they didn’t think I had enough hours. You had to have hours.” Avery, “You had to make up sick time at the end. That is why I went home to study for my RN and then I came back to put in my few weeks that I had to put in.” The students graduated before they wrote the RN exams which were written in November. This meant that students who graduated in August, September or even as early as February (and might be working outside the city), had to return to St. John’s to write the exams. All graduates of the same year wrote together so examinations were held in a large hall, for example, Pitts Memorial Hall or Memorial College. The students wrote ten exams in subjects such as Anatomy and Physiology, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Tb Nursing, Psychiatry, Materia Medica, Medical Nursing, Surgical Nursing and Obstetrical Nursing. By today’s standards the examination schedule would be considered brutal. Woodland, “I know we had to write ten! We had to do one in the afternoon and one at night… five full days.”
Results would not be released for some time after the students wrote. House, “It would probably be two or three months before you would know if you passed.” The results were announced on the radio and the names of the successful candidates were published in the paper. Those outside St. John’s received their results in the mail. Passing the RN exams was clearly a significant event for these women. Whiteway, “They didn’t tell us that we passed. You had to look in the paper (laughter). Everybody was waiting… then you saw your name in the paper (whew). That was something!” Woodland, “The whole class passed… I tell you how I found out. I was working on the children’s ward and the grad on the first floor, who had graduated in ‘ffl she came rushing in… and said ‘The marks are out! The marks are out! I just heard it on VOCM! The RN marks were out. They didn’t give any names.’ And then Major Crowley came in and said she had a list of all of us. All the kids were jumping with glee” (laughter!) Once she passed the RN exams, the graduate then paid a small fee to the Department of Health and received a license to practice nursing. This practice continued until 1953 when the Provincial Government passed the responsibility for the examination and licensing of nurses over to the Newfoundland Graduate Nurses Association (now known as the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador, ARNNL).
Passing the RN exam opened the doors for those who wished to leave the province to work and there were many who did. Griffen relates the story of a classmate, “When Mary Bidgood went to the States, she didn’t have to even write an RN down there. We had (whatever they called it down in the States)… she had enough credits from St.Clare’s, to go right ahead into practice.” Similarly, Higgins, “We did State Boards, you know… so that when we graduated, we had registration across with Nova Scotia and New York.”
Graduation: Although graduation was a time to celebrate the culmination of their hard work, there was not always a lot of fanfare around the event. For those graduating prior to the 1940s, it was often a case of going to the office, picking up your diploma and pin and returning to duty. Prior to 1935, when nurses were admitted to the program when space became available, there was no fixed graduation date. An individual’s graduation date would depend on the date she entered the school of nursing. Often it was determined by the hospital when an individual graduated and a nurse did not necessarily graduate three years from the date she entered. For example, if there was a staff shortage, the student’s time could be extended until she could be released from the hospital. Strong was due to graduate in 1935 but because affiliations to other hospitals were introduced into the nursing program, she was required to stay an additional year to complete them.
Even in the early 1940s not all classes had a graduation ceremony. This was wartime and it seems that during this period some classes did and some classes did not have a graduation event. At the General, Ashbourne did not have a ceremony whereas Bruce did have one. “Before our class graduated in November of 1943, for some reason, they were not holding a ceremony. But for us, they set up a graduation course at Pitts Memorial Hall. It took place in the afternoon and we all wore corsages. We also had a graduation dance and a march where we marched in with our boyfriends. Someone asked me if I remembered singing at the graduation and I did not remember, but I did sing there.”
Dalley, “We had a graduation… in Pitt’s Memorial Hall. Miss Fagner was there… and a lot of the nurses. The superintendent of nurses on all the wards was there, and you could have so many from your family. But I didn’t have anybody because my mother and father couldn’t afford to come… I was the only one. Everybody else had somebody but me. Miss Fagner was sort of [an] administrator and everything all into one. They had lots of flowers… I had a bouquet there and they gave us a bouquet from the hospital.” Griffen, “We had a very formal dance and a dinner at The Old Colony. We had a big graduation. I guess it was at Memorial or some hall anyhow… they had a little reception but then the next day, we had our dance. Before you met your date for the night, you had to be… the nuns had to see that your shoulders weren’t bare or anything. They used to make sure that your shoulders or something weren’t showing (laughter) because people had more… you know, drapes on them and stuff, telling them they were part of their dress, you know?” Woodland, “[We] had a graduation ceremony at Pitts Memorial Hall… and a dinner and everything. We didn’t have a dance. My mom and dad were out, and my brothers… [from Grand Falls]. We graduated in July and I didn’t finish training then until late September, early October.”
Students were required to make up any time they may have missed before receiving their diploma which usually resulted in a delay in completing the program. Barron was told to come back from sick leave to participate in her class graduation ceremony where she won the gold medal for highest marks. She could not go to her graduation dance and it was another year or so before she was well enough to finish her program. Dewling, “I think they had a leprechaun down in the office to count every hour that you missed by being sick. Back then, you had to make up every hour to make the three years exactly. I remember, my finishing time was 2:00 o’clock on Easter Sunday.”