“I sort of suited The Waterford and I really liked it.” Strong (37)
“It was a very interesting and rewarding hospital (Merchant Navy Hospital) in which to work.” St. George (42)
Many of the agencies where these nurses worked no longer exist. For some they no longer served a purpose, while for others the services were incorporated into general hospital services. In all cases the existence of these agencies reflected the times, the rampant communicable diseases and the large military presence because of the war and socioeconomic conditions. All these agencies with the exception of the Gander Airport were housed in St. John’s and acted as referral centers for the whole province. Nursing skills were needed for a wide variety of institutions and agencies, as they are today. In the past, the two major specialty hospitals were the Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, known as the Waterford Hospital today, and the Sanatorium, where patients with tuberculosis were housed and treated. Other agencies where nurses were employed were the Infirmary (Poor House), Fever, Merchant Navy and Orthopedic Hospitals. The Public Health Department ran an agency on Waterford Bridge Road where babies of unwed mothers were housed until adopted, and in keeping with the lack of a road system in Newfoundland Public Health also used ships such as the Christmas Seal and the Lady Anderson, which travelled around Newfoundland bringing health care to outport communities. In addition to being places of employment, the Sanatorium, Waterford, and the Fever were agencies where students affiliated as part of their nursing program.
The Sanatorium: ‘The San’ was located on the outskirts of St. John’s and functioned as the provincial treatment center for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. All nursing students were rotated through the center once affiliations were introduced. As well, there were nurses on permanent staff. St. George, “Following graduation I accepted a position at the St. John’s Sanatorium on Topsail Road. The nurse’s duty was to make a round when you came on duty to see how your patients were doing. The nurse’s aides made the beds.” Nurse describes her duties as a student there, “We had to put dust bane on the floors and sweep it and we had to open every window and the patients all had mitts and sweaters and… because the idea was fresh air.” French worked at the Sanatorium most of her working life. She describes the layout of the hospital: “There were wards and the males and females were separated with the females on wards 7 and 8, and the males on wards 1 and 2. Then we had the south wing, where they did some minor surgery. Finally, they brought in pre-teenagers and eventually they had the children’s ward. I worked on the men’s ward mostly and we had about twenty odd. Then they had the exercise patients out on the veranda. Yes, and it was cold out there. We used to have to wear gloves and sweaters to make the beds out there. At that time, we had a building called the Hut, that was used for everything; church on Sunday, concerts on Monday’s, whichever. Then, there was what we called the south wing, which was made up of sicker patients. Therefore, when they did surgery, all patients would end up in the south wing. You see, they did the surgery down at the General. They would go down to the General and have their surgery and stay down there for a couple of weeks. But eventually, they opened up an operating room in the Sanatorium.”
Treatment for tuberculosis changed over time. At the beginning there was very little hope for a patient who contracted the disease. French, “Before they got the Tb drugs it was purely rest and food… yes, in the beginning because there was no drugs. But when they got the Tb drugs it was a godsend.” St. George, “Most of the patients had complete rest for two hours in the mornings and afternoons with all the windows open for fresh air.”
French, “One thing that I did not agree with was the rest period from 9:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. and again in the evening from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. That was complete rest, there was no reading or anything. One day I was cleaning the veranda and came across a book, so, I asked the patient [Jerry] what the book was doing there, and he replied that he was wondering the same thing himself. Imagine making you lay down for two hours and look at the ceiling!” French also described the common treatments at the Sanatorium while she was a nurse there. One was the Pneumothorax, a treatment that was given one to three times a week and consisted of putting a needle between the ribs and injecting air into the pleural cavity. This collapsed the lung and healing could occur while the lung was at rest. Another, the Phrenic Crush was done if the cavity caused by the tuberculosis was in the base of the lung. The phrenic nerve was crushed and this would cause the diaphragm to collapse and push upward. The chest cavity would be smaller and easier to fill with air. The third and most invasive treatment was the Thorocoplasty which was performed in the OR. An incision was made in the patient’s side and two or three ribs would be removed. The chest was would then fall and collapse the lung permanently. St. George, “Artificial pneumothorax and thoracoplasty were done to patients who would benefit from it weekly by Dr. D. R. Bennett, the Medical Director. Miss Ethel Wells, Registered Nurse (RN) was the Matron and Miss M. Chard, Assistant.”
As patients recuperated, they progressed to the veranda outdoors and eventually they were allowed to have an exercise period. French, “Before the Tb drugs they would be in anywhere from one year to three years. When they would finally progress they would be allowed to do a half an hour of exercise. They would go out after rest period and go for a walk outdoors. They could go wherever they like for the hour that they were out. This lad came in from the army and really liked his drink. So, this day, he was on exercise and I got this phone call questioning if I had this young lad as my patient. Apparently, it was the police station and he was down at the station after going out and having a few drinks.” Nurse worked at the Sanatorium for two years after the Tb drugs had been introduced. “But then when I went back on the staff, much later, there was the PAS, the INAH, the miracle drugs… and so we had tins of pills that were being given. I can’t remember the blood tests but we’d routinely do that; they all had to have that, the patients. So that’s what you were busy doing and they had to be weighed and bathed and, of course, then back up to the cold… not the cold area in the 50s this time, because there was quite a difference.”
Because many patients stayed at the Sanatorium for long periods, they came to know each other and staff quite well and weren’t above playing jokes on each other and on staff, particularly students. French, “When they were doing the surgery in the Sanatorium, even for a phrenic crush they would give you an anaesthetic. So, this one chap had a general anaesthetic and came back to his own bed, which was on the ward. It was either before Christmas or after Christmas, either way the decorations were still up. I had to check on him, so I went down during the afternoon and he was sound asleep. Apparently, someone was after picking a wreath off the wall and put it on his head and there he was, out like a light, with a Christmas wreath on his head!” Griffen worked at the Sanatorium for six months as a student, “But they were all happy in the San, I mean some of them were there two years but they sort of accepted it. I was frightened to death of tuberculosis. I was afraid of everything (laughter)! I remember one, they never did it to me but they’d probably take you, if they knew you were scared of Tb, and put you in the bed with one [of the patients]. Because they were all up to just… plain fun. Dr. Brownrigg used to do lung surgery, in those days. Then they’d be in bed but, otherwise, they were up. They could get up around all day.”
The nurses became quite fond of the patients, especially the children. French, “We had a young fellow on the ward and at that stage, there was a program on one of the radio stations that would be broadcast at suppertime when the news would come on. Anyway, the little fellow had red hair and the boys used to call him the Old Red Rooster. Well, it was his birthday, so we got a gift for him and put it in a locker and somebody put it on the air on this show. They wished him a Happy Birthday and they told him to look in the Old Red Rooster’s locker and there would be a present for him… then the Rotarian’s were very good. We had a group that would come in and bring entertainment. Two people would have to stay on and go down with the patients when something was on the go. They would bring in singing and maybe a little play.”
Once the tuberculosis drugs were introduced the incidence of Tb dropped and the Sanatorium closed. French, “I then worked at St. Clare’s and retired when I was 65 years old. All of the Tb was finished and the few patients that were left were sent to Corner Brook, because there was a Sanatorium out there. But there was not very many Tb patients, just emphysema and different chronic chest diseases. So they left and that gave us 20 beds on medicine at St. Clare’s and that is where we went. They also, brought the patients back for re-checks at the x-ray room in the basement. They would only come in by day. They would not stay overnight. I suppose every three to six months.”
Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases (now the Waterford Hospital): The Mental became familiar to nurses because the nursing school affiliations required that all nursing students have a rotation there. Some returned to work there for many years. Strong worked in psychiatric nursing for most of her career: “I was a Staff Nurse from 1938 to1942 and then I was Director of Nurses from 1942 to 1949. I sort of suited the Waterford and I really liked it. It so happened that Dr. Grieves asked Miss Taylor if she had anyone she could recommend to be sent away. So, I took a course from 1937 to 1938 at Toronto Psychiatric Hospital. At that time, the only treatment they used were continuous water baths, which were very good… [and] patients worked in the laundry and in the kitchen.” Patients did the work under the attendance of the housekeeping staff. [This served as an alternate patient therapy]. But a doctor in Saint John, New Brunswick had started hypoglycemic therapy and Dr. Grieves, who was the superintendent of the hospital, had gone to see the results. Following his visit, she travelled to New Brunswick to take a course in Insulin therapy. “In May of 1938, we started it in St. John’s and we had great success. They stopped it because I suppose, there was never enough staff to continue and the circumstances changed in there because there was a period when there was no doctor. We had to watch them very carefully. There would be more staff on the insulin ward than on other wards. They had high doses because the aim was for them to have a coma. They would be given the high dose in the morning and they had to be watched carefully. Sometimes, they would have a convulsion. One lady came in who was suffering from deep depression. She was very poor and poorly dressed and she was pregnant. Anyway, Dr. Grieves thought ‘Lets do something for her.’ Well, she had a convulsion on a very low dose of insulin and she recovered perfectly. Ten years later, insulin therapy was still a primary treatment in psychiatry.” King, “Insulin therapy was used very extensively in those days along with Electric Shock Treatment (ECT). We had about six patients and some of them were out-patients. They would come in to see us in the morning and we would give them a dosage of insulin that was much higher than you would take with diabetes, to the point where you would put them into several stages of coma. They would reach the coma eventually and we would terminate that by giving them glucose intravenously and this would bring the patient back to normal. The patient then would spend the rest of the day in psychotherapy or being active. [A coma] was supposed to disintegrate their psychotic thoughts. When I think back to that, it was very serious. We did have a graduate nurse that was in charge all of the time; I only worked there a very short while. On occasion, we would have a patient who would have an ECT, often called shock treatment, and they would sometimes have both of these. This was very serious; the doctor would never leave the unit during that time. If I were not in charge that day, I would be helping the nurse who gave the insulin herself. But if I happened to be in charge I would inject the insulin. I am not sure if I gave insulin because that was a very big responsibility… in the early days, there were very few drugs given. Although still, there are drugs given today that were used then. When I first saw an ECT given, the patient’s head was shaved right around the temporal area and that is where the electrode was placed. We would stand and hold the padded patient because of that Grand Mal seizure that they were having. Today, they do that treatment up in recovery and they have an injection of an anti-convulsive drug and you hardly see them moving on the table. Also, there was no anesthetic; it was years later before the anesthetist came.”
“In 1942, the matron was leaving and I [Strong] applied for the job but they automatically thought that Miss Callahan would fill the job. I knew nothing about administration but I did get the job with help from Dr. Grieves. Now, I was in charge of nursing assistants, graduate nurses, and later more. Some time later, Dr. Crummy had left and Dr. Grieves got sick and here I was with no doctor. Dr. Kane and Dr. McNamara would come but they had no psychiatric experience; I had to rely on someone who did. That meant I had the male side, the female side, the laundry, the kitchen, and my own duties to worry about. Dr. Grieves wanted to keep in touch. So, I used to try and keep him up to date by going out to his house on Water Street with some folders. But I was wanted everywhere and it was a pleasure to go out but it was just too much time. After a while, Dr. Grieves died and Dr. Simpson from the Naval Base used to come in and that was before there was electric treatment. I remember once there was a woman that they didn’t think was going to recover from the deep depression she was in. Apparently, she did end up dying and Dr. Simpson cried when I told him. He was really upset because he knew that she was a mother. The responsibility was something terrible. It so happened that a board of local judges and lawyers used to come in and that is how we got people discharged. I would do a report on the patient, how they were doing and they [the board] would decide if she would be well enough to go home. I can’t ever remember doing it out for a man. I don’t know who took care of them being discharged.”
Strong, “The staff had really long hours. I was at the Waterford when we started 8-hour shifts. That is when we started the rotation. There would be a shift from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and then another one with less staff at 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. With this system nurses knew what shift they would be on a month in advance. There was usually one or two [Registered Nurses] on nights. Really, you would have to take your hat off to the nursing assistants. They worked really hard and did everything. One morning they came and told me that a woman had hung herself in the bathroom. At that time, there was not one graduate nurse on and the poor nursing assistants were trying to cope with this; they were very tender women.” King also recalls the staffing at the hospital, “Every unit had [a graduate]. Then, they had experienced nursing assistants who were a great help but they could not give medications or IVs. We also had a sick unit for anyone who needed that care. All wards were locked at that time and we were very surprised when, in later years they unlocked them. We had people who had courses and that. They came in to the Waterford to be Occupational Therapy Aides. They had skills and they knew how to do all of the knitting and sewing and they taught the patients how to do that. We had basketball and dances. The Rotary was very involved at the Waterford.” As at the Sanatorium, the staff also returned to the wards during their time off to help out by taking the patients to the entertainment. King, “Yes. I think they expected us to do that but we did not mind because we enjoyed doing it. In those days, you knew everybody and you were very close.”
The nurses who worked at the Waterford truly appreciated the work of the untrained nursing assistants many of whom often worked at the institution for years. These men and women, started working with the mentally ill without formal training and for many years made up the majority of the staff. King, “They were called attendants and nursing aides but we changed that. In those days when I first went there, the men were in uniforms with brass buttons. I thought that was terrible. We got them out of those uniforms and into white uniforms. They were just serge uniforms with brass buttons. It almost looked like a penitentiary type uniform. They were like guards and the patients called them guards as well. They would not hurt anyone in any way; they were very nice people.” Strong, “When my children were in school all day I went back to work. I asked if I could look after the nursing assistants because I had such a warm spot in my heart for them and I thought I would like to have a hand in their education. So, I was on the teaching staff from 1960 to 1966. After that I worked with affiliating nurses.” King also taught the nursing assistants: “Then, the nursing assistants had to be taught. They would do basic nursing, such as bed baths, temperatures, bed making, and interpersonal relationships. Then, at the end of their 6 month course they had a graduation ceremony apart from the student nurses. I wrote all of their names in script on their certificates but my name was not on them; that would be the director of nursing.”
Some of the treatments employed at the time are still used today and some have been replaced with new and more effective therapy. Strong, “Back before there was Penicillin, they used to treat patients in the last stages of Syphilis in a fever machine. The machine would get up to very high temperatures and kill the bacteria.” King worked as a manager in this unit after she returned from completing a psychiatric nursing course at McGill University. “I came right back to the Waterford Hospital. I did not actually work on the floors as a nurse because I was in the specialty areas. I worked in the fever therapy treatment for GPI [condition of the brain] and we had to give artificial fever therapy by putting the patient in the cabinet and raising their temperature to 104°. I remember it was a lot of responsibility… that was the treatment then. This was a therapy to kill bacteria. But it was not only one treatment. This would go on for a long, long time.” In 1949, Strong was traveling back to Newfoundland from a visit to hospitals in the United States and Canada. Dr. Grieves had heard about a new Malaria treatment for end stage of Syphilis – patients were given a course of Malaria which ended with Quinine. He asked her to stop off in New Brunswick and see what they were doing. At his request she carried back Malarial blood, taped to her ribs, from New Brunswick to St. John’s. It took her three days to get home by boat and train.
Higgins left the General Hospital to work in the operating room at the Waterford: “I had a friend in there, one of my classmates, and I decided to make a change. Dr. Brownrigg was going to do prefrontal lobotomies in there, and that interested me so I was attached to the OR and worked preoperatively and post-operatively with the prefrontal lobotomy patients. I scrubbed for the first lobotomy that was done in Newfoundland and… I was scrubbed for five and a half hours… without a break. But I had scrubbed for Dr. Brownrigg and had scrubbed for some major surgery. It was really exciting, yes, because you did the history and, you saw the patient progress, or regress, as would be. Well, patients who were advanced in their psychosis, and were making little progress. It was the advanced patient that he did that would show more improvement… well, some were successful. I don’t recall now, how many. He didn’t do a lot because that took time to study that patient… how it was for two or three months. But it was an experience. I was at the Waterford only one year.” King also attended this surgery: “I was in there when they did the pre-frontal lobotomy. Now, students did not see that done but they saw patients post-operatively. These are long-term chronic Schizophrenic patients who are more than likely Obsessive-Compulsive who had this operation performed. The Waterford had an operating room at that time and Dr. Brownrigg did that surgery. After the surgery, the patient would have to be taught again; this would be done one on one and many of these were successful but many were not.”
In addition to the medical therapies, the Waterford staff explored other therapeutic avenues for the patients. In 1949, when Newfoundland was still a country, Strong traveled to the United States and Canada to investigate the latest therapies for mental illness. “I went to the Institute for Living in Hartford Connecticut and that was very high class. I think Dr. Roberts arranged that; he thought it would be good for me to see it. When I came back from there, I arranged for us to have colored uniforms at the Waterford; I thought it would make for a better atmosphere. On my way back from Hartford, I stopped in Ontario and saw the hospitals, just to see what could be done.”
The Fever: Before immunizations were used to any great extent, communicable diseases were rampant throughout the province. The Fever was a hospital, located near the General on Forest Road, where patients with these infections were sent. Godden worked at the Fever as an untrained nursing aide before going into nursing school: “Yes I worked at the Fever Hospital for years… not as a trained nurse… just went in, fresh. And worked in there for years… three years I think it was.” According to Godden, the conditions prevalent at the Fever in the 1930s included, “… all kinds of conditions – Typhoid, Erysipelas, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Measles – all those things.” Almost twenty years later the conditions treated at the Fever had not changed dramatically. Woodland, “At the Fever, [you’d have] complications of Measles which would be Pneumonia, and you’d have Tb Meningitis… and Polio. I liked it except… you had to scrub so much and my poor arms and hands were… raw! And the one in charge was very, very strict. We had to do six weeks down there. We were glad to leave there.” In addition to caring for inpatients, staff at the Fever were called out when there was a suspected communicable disease. Dewling, “Anyway, we got a call one morning that there was a French fishing trawler in and some of the crew had mumps with complications. We used to do ambulance calls at the Fever. But we were dressed up pretty with a long white gown and a blue cape and off we went with the drivers. We looked after the patients coming back. Anyway, when they told me that they wanted me to attend that day, I told her that I could not speak French. She said, ‘You don’t have to speak French. There will be an interpreter there.’ So, off I went out in the harbour aboard this trawler and I am sitting there with all of these men around me wanting me to see their Mumps. The driver was sitting beside me and I warned him not to move one inch away from me because I was so terrified and the smell on board was making me sick. I asked who could speak English and nobody could and I had to fill out this big long form. Anyway, they eventually brought an interpreter on board from Customs and he had a great kick out of the questions that I had to ask these men. Finally, we got it all filled out and I went back to the Fever with the two men and put them in bed. [They would have stayed in the hospital]… a couple of weeks and I don’t know where they would have gone then.” Penney also worked at the Fever for two years after graduation. She lived in residence and worked seven days a week.
St. John Ambulance: Story resigned from teaching and worked for St. John Ambulance for a couple of years: “I was teaching first aid and home nursing.” This was a newly created position and she was responsible for getting St. John Ambulance moving in the province. Story, “I was there for a couple of years and then I got tired of that and went back to the General Hospital as supervisor.”
The Infirmary: Merrigan worked at the Infirmary in the west end of the city near Victoria Park for a number of years before she got married in 1948. Merrigan, “I also worked at the Infirmary in St. John’s, people used to call that the Poor House. Some people would never think of calling it the Poor House, I never did. I suppose it was because people were poor when they went there. But I liked it there. It was just for people who could not get around. Something like a nursing home. In the hospital at the Infirmary, we would wash them and get the trays ready. Miss Vey was in charge there at one time before I left. It was clean.” Merrigan estimated that the number of patients was about 80 at any one time. Most needed some degree of nursing care, “We did eight hour shifts there… we would work every day. There was quite a few [nurses]; I think there was two floors in the Infirmary.”
Waterford Manor: Puddister worked at the home for seven months before getting married: “I nursed with Public Health on Waterford Bridge Road when I graduated. It was in a house, which is now a bed and breakfast. I worked just with children there… only babies. About thirty. Just looking after so many babies each day. [She reported to] the nurse. Her name was Miss Casey. The other one was from England.”
Industrial Nursing (Dosco): Moakler, “I worked with Dosco as an industrial nurse… five years… ’52 to ’57… there was the mines there and we had to go to work in the mine; there was an office upstairs, the nursing office, and we’d just sit there and wait to see if there was any accidents… and we were there just in case there was accidents. It was like a little hospital room. And we had to be around the clock, of course, so we did shift work but when you were on in the evenings, you could lie down; there was a cot there and you could lie down. [There were four nurses].”
Merchant Navy Hospital: St. George, “In 1946 I accepted a position at the Merchant Navy Hospital on Water Street West. It was a beautiful old family residence with three floors, the nurse’s residence on the third floor. The first and second floors were for patients, x-ray room, laboratory and a treatment room where patients received quartz lamp, heating pads and physiotherapy. The patients were Portuguese, Spanish, and French seamen. It also housed World War I and II war veterans who came for checkups with regard to their pensions. We had an officer’s ward on the second floor with five beds. When the ships came into port, the ship’s agent would go on board and take the sick sailors to the hospital, accompanied by the ship’s doctor and an interpreter. Dr. [Dinty] Moores was the doctor in charge of the Merchant Navy Hospital and Dr. J. J. Kennedy was Assistant. They would be informed [when the patient came in] and would come right away to give their diagnosis and prescribe treatment.”
St. George, “In July 1948 I was offered a position as assistant x-ray technician [at the hospital] and completed a course in Modern Radiographic Procedure given by General Electric Medical Products Company and the General Hospital. Dr. Bliss Murphy was with the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) in Gander and he alternated with Dr. W. J. Higgins weekly to do Gastric Series Barium Enemas and to read the x-rays taken the previous week. We also developed our own x-rays. When the Radiologist came for the readings, I also took the dictation. One evening I got a call back to the x-ray as a sailor had fallen in the hold of his ship. When I arrived a dead sailor was being wheeled into x-ray. I asked Dr. Kennedy, ‘What do I have to do?’ His reply was, ‘x-ray him from head to toe. This was for the ship’s insurance company. It was a very interesting and rewarding hospital in which to work. We often used our Portugese, Spanish and French dictionaries to help sailors who were far away from their homes. However, in 1950 due to Government changes, the hospital was closed.”
Pepperell: Higgins who went to work with the Americans after the war gives some insight into the workings of the military hospital: “Well… Pepperell base was in full swing down there with the Americans and… so I was asked… if I would be interested in working as a civilian nurse on the base and… I took the position and I was there for six years. There were ten air force nurses and only two civilians. According to the agreement with the Government, they had to employ some civilian nurses. They wanted somebody right away because one of the two civilian nurses had gone on vacation and put in her resignation… so they were one short in that way. And it was mostly in a supervisory position because they had the military and the corps men who were like… the student nurses, who were working there. It was in full swing when I went down there. There must have been 5,000 dependants….and that area was called the dependant’s area so you did duty there… but you floated then. When the army had clinics, the military personnel did that. But the dependant clinics for tuberculosis and that… we covered… the nurses, even the army nurses, always covered the clinics. We had inspection once a week and they came around… the army did all that… cleaning up for the wards and the area and everything. They came around with white gloves and went along with the white gloves along the tops of the doors and everywhere they could spot. And at that time too, smoking wasn’t prohibited like it is today. It wasn’t as much of a taboo. And you could go in the utility room and have a smoke. The pay might have been a little bit more but I believe like any jobs that the Newfoundlanders had with the Americans, there was a hold down; they weren’t allowed to pay them what they were paying the Americans. The leave was about the same with the Americans and with the military. And I found that we had the responsibility to do a lot of things, like put up IVs and… gave IV medications, it was just another thing to do, where it wasn’t permitted if I were working at the General. [You were] a lot more independent there.”
Army Reserve: Dewling worked with the Canadian Army, “I did different kinds of nursing; I was in the Army Reserve for a while. I got into that without wanting to go into it. It was at the beginning of the Korean conflict and the medical commanding officer came to see me and told me that he would like me to come up. I told him that I did not want to join the Army, but he asked me to go up and train some nurses for him because none of them up there had any experience with labs. So I went up there to do that and a couple of nights later someone threw a piece of paper at me and I was in the Army and I did not train too many nurses, I did it all myself. It was supposed to be at night. But somehow, the Army made arrangements with the General Hospital because Dr. Roberts came to see me and told me that I had to cooperate with the Army and they will be calling me from time to time and that I had permission to leave when that would happen. I was teaching nursing at the General. So I used to get a call from the switchboard saying that Buckmaster’s just called and that there was a car on the way for me. I had my own car, my own driver, and my own list. There were a lot of nurses that went in the Reserve but I don’t know any that had all of this. [My husband Art] was a Lieutenant in the British Army and he thought it was absolutely a riot that I had my own driver. It was some years after that that Art and I were at a dance at the Legion and this man kept staring at me. [The man] said that he had not seen me in a long time but he was sure I was the person he thought I was. He asked me if I was Lieutenant Skinner and he said he was my driver for three years.”
The Lady Anderson: Because of the non existent road system in rural Newfoundland, the sea was the primary route by which health care was brought to the majority of Newfoundlanders. The Lady Anderson and the Christmas Seal visited communities around Newfoundland on a regular basis. When the ship would arrive the residents of the community went down to the wharf to attend clinics held by the doctor or nurse. The Lady Anderson travelled along the south coast of Newfoundland and was equipped to deal with surgical procedures and the administration of anaesthetics. Moakler worked on the Lady Anderson where as the only health care provider she diagnosed problems and treated the patients with whatever was available: “And when I went with the Department of Health first, Myrtle Cummings was there and she offered me three positions, two at cottage hospitals and one out on the Lady Anderson, so I took the Lady Anderson. It was coastal. It was an American yacht of the Newfoundland Government. And they used it out on the coast to get to each of the communities. There was a doctor in Grand Bank and a doctor in Harbour Breton. Other than that, there was no doctor. So we were given all kinds of medications… like a mixture, ‘mixed stomatic,’ we used to call it for the stomach, or cleanse the chest and if we found that somebody had rales in their chest, you just give him this chest medicine. That was a great job… it was just great. Now how we got our calls was, we would stop say in Harbour Breton, and get a message, a wireless message, saying somebody was very sick in Belleoram so we’d go up to Belleoram. And then when we’d get to Belleoram, there might be another message saying we had to go to Rencontre, and then when you got there… the messages would follow us along the coast. And we’d probably pull in and there’d be eight or ten people waiting on the wharf for us… and the babies, and pulling their teeth and different things. You did very little vaccinations. In those days you were really a medical person. And you’d probably get in somewhere and the people would be further along the road so you’d have to go on horse and sleigh or dog sleigh. I remember one time… it’s so vivid in my mind… where we had to go on dog sleigh and it was so treacherous; we were on ice, we were off ice, and I was so glad when I got back on that ship. I must tell you something funny about the captain. Dr. Kent would say to me when we’d go into Harbour Breton, ‘The captain had a few drinks today.’ But I could never understand how he knew the captain had a few drinks. So when I was leaving the coast, I said to Dr. Kent, ‘How did you know when the captain was having a drink?’ He said, ‘When you’d be coming into Harbour Breton, he would pull one whistle when we were coming in, two whistles if we needed the ambulance, but when he had a few drinks, he used to pull the whistle ham on the ham bone!’ He always knew when he had a few drinks. There was a hospital in Harbour Breton and one in Grand Bank. There was a small clinic on the side of the boat and we would look after them there. Yes, I know, no control, when you think about it. It was amazing how many skills you acquired out of necessity. It wasn’t unusual; it was expected of you. I felt I was helping somebody and that’s what I went in training for.”
Gander Airport: Another employer of nurses during that era was the Federal Government at Gander Airport. Gander was the point of entry to North America for transatlantic flights as all flights stopped there for refueling. Anyone wishing to immigrate to Canada or the United States had to have their health documents checked at Gander. Griffen worked at Gander, “I decided to go to National Health and Welfare because you didn’t lift or anything. You had regular shifts. I applied and I got the job but I had met Dr. Weisgerber. He was a German and he used to check all their vaccination certificates and, if they weren’t vaccinated, they had to be vaccinated then if they wanted to come into the airport. You had to give them vaccinations because we were in cahoots with the States so, they couldn’t get into the States because Smallpox was rampant. It might take ten hours, I suppose, or more to come across the Atlantic. And we were really busy. I mean, we’d have 40 flights in the night, it’d be nothing. But probably it’s only the same numbers [of passengers] as it is now ’cause the planes were small. Because, at that time, there were a lot of flights coming in with displaced persons… from the war. And nobody ever knew because they were hoarded in the planes like cattle. And at that time, they had bunks in the aircraft. Even the people travelling would pay for a sleeper. If you wake them up and tell them that they weren’t vaccinated, they wouldn’t get off. They had no intention of getting off after paying a fortune for a berth to come across.”
The duties of a nurse in this position included much more than checking for immunizations. Griffen, “And, of course, then if there was babies aboard, we had to make formulas and everything for them. And if any of them ended up in hospital, we looked after them, the National Health, because at one time, they lost a lot of newborns in the hospital; they figured it was somebody who came off the flight with some kind of a germ. They didn’t want them to get it again so they would sort of isolate… and we would have to handle it. And if you treated anybody from the States, you’d have to make them sign. One of the girls… somebody had a convulsion and she offered them a doctor. You offer everybody a doctor (laughter) because of the States and he, the person, didn’t want a doctor. They said no, they were used to having epileptic seizures and they were fine and months after that, they tried to sue the airlines. And she was asked to go down to [the U.S.] but Dr. Hurdle, because we were under Halifax, said ‘No, she didn’t have to go.’ That’s why they couldn’t make her go down there to testify.”
Nursing for National Health and Welfare afforded many benefits to the nurses. Griffen, “Oh, they hired an awful lot of nurses. It would be about six of us at a time there because there was two on nights there. But in those days, we all lived in the hotel; we didn’t stay at the hospital. The nurses at the hospitals stayed at the hospital but we stayed in the hotel. They had a beautiful restaurant, the hotel did. The queerest thing it was, you could come home from work in the morning and, the maids would never touch your room, if you put a sign on, ‘you had worked midnights’ or ‘don’t disturb,’ they wouldn’t touch your room ’til you got up. And you could bring anybody in with you but they had to be out by midnight. Like when I was going out with Des, if he stayed two minutes after midnight, they called the ones in charge of C.Q. and she’d be checking to make sure that everybody was out. And, not only that, when we worked with National Health and Welfare, we made more money than most nurses in Newfoundland. We got the nurse’s rate on the mainland. And we were called category three. Now, after a couple of months, you went to category three which was the highest paid. Oh it was fantastic! Our meals were included. And the meals we ate in the terminal, we sent in… you know, we kept receipts and we got paid for them. And our uniforms were free. I mean, first we wore naval uniforms. And then after that, they changed, they had a black and white one and then finally we had red. By the time I left, we had red uniforms but we wore white coats over… like we took off the jacket, but boarding the aircraft, you had to wear your red.”
Working in Gander meant there was a lot of cooperation between the members of the medical team and the flight crew. Griffen, “Another night, they had a flight and they had this man in the back seat of the plane and he was just like this, you know (demonstrating to interviewer). The captain said, ‘Don’t say anything about that, you know, because he’s dead. But we’re going to leave him here on the seat, but don’t tell anybody, because when we get airborne and get near New York, we’ll say we have a passenger who died.’ Yeah, so that’s what they did. They took off and when they got near New York, or wherever they were landing, they called and said they had a passenger… because, see if they died here, they’d have to take him and put him in a steel casket and all that kind of stuff… and the whole plane would be held for ages!”
In fact some of the situations that Griffen found herself in were dangerous. Griffen, “Now this night, they had a flight that came from Saudi Arabia and they hadn’t seen a woman for months. Anyhow, first of all, some of them weren’t vaccinated and we had to vaccinate them. And they were so rowdy and everything that the mountie came up to stay with us while we were vaccinating them. So we heard this ruckus outside and the stewardess runs in, and she says ‘Oh, come out, come out, there’s somebody bleeding!’ And I said, ‘Call your captain. Don’t go telling me.’ And she said, ‘No, come on, you got to go.’ So anyhow, I had to call the doctor into the hospital. So he came up, and I’ll never forget it. So anyhow, he just gave him an injection and he assured him that he’d sleep, but the flight got delayed. So buddy started waking up. So they came in and said, ‘He’s awake.’ And the captain said, ‘Look, he’s awake, what are we going to do?’ So I called the doctor again. He said, ‘Joan, I’m not coming up. Go out and give him an injection and make sure you give him enough that either it kills him or he sleeps.’ So I went out, and the mountie was a real small man, and he said, ‘I’ll go aboard the aircraft with you.’ So when I went out, he [the passenger] went to grab me, and the mountie struck him right here somewhere on his neck (demonstrating) and laid him out a cold junk. Yes, the mountie hit him right here when he went to grab me and he said, ‘He won’t wake up, Joan, ’til he gets to New York, for sure.’ But I still gave him the injection to make sure, so I don’t know; we didn’t hear that he died (laughter).”
In the 1950s, Gander was known as the ‘Crossroads of the World,’ and consequently had its share of famous visitors, all of whom had to be checked by the nurse. However, Griffen was not deterred by their fame. Griffen relates a few stories about her brushes with fame, ‘Well, sure when Guggarin, who was the first man in space… I wasn’t working but Chris Dunne, she graduated from the Grace… she was working and she was a character. Anyhow, they landed in Gander, it was on a Saturday or Sunday… she couldn’t get hold of Halifax, and they landed in Gander. He wasn’t vaccinated. Now he had come back from space so she wasn’t allowed to let him off. So he was very short, apparently, so she came down off the flight and she said, ‘That’s a sin. That poor little fella all dressed up in his new uniform and he can’t get off.’ Well the news heard about him, because everybody knew he was landing here. There were news people everywhere. They wanted her to go on whatever program it was they used to interview people, like on CBC in those days. But she wouldn’t go. And the only one I ever had trouble with was Hugh Hefner with his bunny plane. He didn’t think anybody should board that because he had a gorgeous bed in it and everything like that. He was some disgusted ’til he found out he couldn’t land and he wouldn’t be allowed to do anything in Gander unless the nurses cleared him, so he had to let us aboard. That’s the only fella I had trouble with. And one night… the movie actors used to come in on a flight and I was clearing the flight this night and, Frankie Sinatra was on it. So I asked him for his vaccination certificate and he said, ‘You show me yours.’ And I said, ‘We’re vaccinated.’ And I had a long talk to him and Sammy Davis Jr. was with him, and I never went to movies very much, so I didn’t know who I was talking to anyhow (laughter). So one of the men said, ‘You had some talk to Frankie, Joan.’ And I said, ‘Who? Is Frankie Broderick working?’ They said, ‘Who did you think you were just talking to? Frank Sinatra, my dear, that’s who!’ It pays to be ignorant, doesn’t it? And another time the flight was cancelled here and Sean, my oldest boy, said, ‘Oh mom, there’s…. oh, the English fella now I can’t remember his name… get his autograph.’ I said, ‘Sean, I’m not starting that racket getting autographs; there’s no way am I going to do it.’ And so anyhow Sutherland kept coming back and forth into the office, and finally I said, ‘Do you want a cup of coffee?’ He said, ‘Sure.’ I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing here coming back and forth in here.’ He said, ‘But you’ve got personality; I’ve never met anybody as friendly as you are.’ So in the meantime, Sean called. He said, ‘Mom, change your mind. That whole plane is filled with movie stars.’ I said, ‘I’ll see what I can do for you.’ So I came out and I said to buddy, ‘Do you know Donald Sutherland on the flight? And he said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘My son… you know, if I were that nice to give you a cup of coffee… my son would like an autograph.’ ‘That’s no problem,’ he said ‘who do you think I am?’ I said, ‘I haven’t got two clues.’ He said, ‘That’s who I am, Donald Sutherland.’ And he gave….the autograph. So Pearl Romley was from the mainland, and she loved movies. So Customs said, ‘You missed it today, my dear, ’cause Joan is out giving coffee.’ So she called and she said, ‘Joan, are you sure the cup and saucer matched?’ I said, ‘My dear, he had coffee Newfie style; I don’t care what matched. I couldn’t tell you’.”
As today, opportunities in the nursing profession were so broad that nurses could find their niche in jobs that challenged their interests and abilities. Their work also provided circumstances where they flourished and used their skills to respond to the needs of the agency and their patients.