GRADUATION CEREMONY

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23401, 7 August 1941, Page 2

GRADUATION CEREMONY

PRESENTATION OF MEDALS “Our group of graduates this tirhe is small, but the Quality is there if not the quantity*” said Miss G. Widdowson, Lady Superintendent bf the Christchurch Hospital, when spfeaklng at the graduation ceremony Held at the Nurses’ New Home, Christchurch Hospital, last night, when the June graduate nurses received their medals and certificates. Miss Widdowson said that all the candidates had qualified and she was confident that they would, prove themselves good, commonsense nurses, making full use of their knowledge and upholding the ideals, of their profession. Mr L. A. Bennett, senior lecturer in surgery at the hospital, congratulated the graduates and wished them success and happiness in their work. He emphasised the fact that although methods of treatment of disease and injury changed, the basic principles'©! the nursing and medical professions were unchanging. The three great influences in the training faf nurses, he said, were religion, war, 2nd science. The Ordered training of nurses which dated back only about 100 yeats, Mr Bennett continued, began amongst members of religious orders. Deep faith Wds necessary to both doctors and nurses to help them to overcome difficulties. He described some changes in treatment brought about by war &nd of the result Of mass experiments* car r ried out during wars. Dealing with the scientific side of a nurse’s training, he said, some argued that it had become too academic and scientific. With this view he disagreed. He was certain the nurses would find that the scientist knowledge they had gained would be of the greatest value to them. Miss J. Trotter, president of the Canterbury branch of the Registered Nurses’ Association, reminded thb graduates tnat, to be successful, thfe khdWledge they had acquired must be allied to wisdom, goodness, and high principle. She advised them to cultivate. all three talents; if they sang or played the piano or painted they must .continue to practise these accomplishments; thus would they sweeten their lives and make contacts with their patients. They should, too, take an interest in civic affairs. "Above all,” she said, “be, brave and steadfast, kind and true, With faith in God and your fellow men,, in that way you will earh from them faith in yoli.” Sir Hugh Acland read an interesting diary recording the vicissitudes of St. Thomas’s Hospital, Lbhdon, during the war. Miss Trotter, then presented medals ahd prizes to the following:— Graduates: Nurses P. N. Bensemanri, G. BoUnsall, M. W. Ellwood, K. M. Gee, M. V. Halkett, M. B. Kirk, A G. Mansoh, J. A. Marshall, H. K. Mowat, P. Ritchie, D. R; Rutherford* E; B: Stanseil, S. M. A. Turner. Prize-winners: Special prizes: Gold medal, Nurse Bensemarin; practical nursing, Nurse Halkett; term examinations: Senior medicine. Nurse Rutherford; senior surgery. Nurse Murray; junior medicine, Nurse Jakins; juqibr surgery, Nurse Symes; anatomy and physiology, Nursd Gardiner.