GRADUATION OF NURSES

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26857, 9 October 1952, Page 2

GRADUATION OF NURSES

Ceremony At Public Hospital

ADDRESS BY MISS F. CAMERON The nurses’ graduation ceremony, held last evening at the Nurses’ Home, Christchurch Hospital, was a joyous occasion for a large band of graduates and for their parents and other relatives, but the gathering was tinged with sadness because it was the last occasion on which, the lady superintendent (Miss G. Widdowson) presided at such a ceremony. After 16 years as lady superintendent, she will reitre from that post within the next few weeks. Miss Widdowson welcomed the visitors and said she was particularly grateful to Miss F. Cameron, director of the New Zealand Nursing Division, herself a graduate of the Christchurch Hospital, for coming from Wellington to attend the ceremony. Of 45 nurses who sat for the State examinations, Miss Widdowson continued, eight gained honours and one, Nurse N. J. Kinross, topped the list for New Zealand and gained honours in all subjects. The graduates had upheld the traditions of the nursing scnool, she said, and she hoped that they would continue their work with skill and imagination and not-forget the ideals set Before them at the Christchurch Hospital. Mr V. C. Lawn, chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, congratulated the graduates and said that an English professor (Professor C. G. Rob), who had just completed a month’s course of lectures at the hospital, had said that the standard of efficiency of the nurses was so high and the general dignity and conduct of the nurses so good that he was reminded of St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. This high standard was in no small degree, Mr Lawn said, due to Miss Widdowson, whose retirement he regretted. Miss Camerson remarked that the scene had changed since the time when she graduated at the Christchurch Hospital. It would seem from Mr Lawn’s remarks that the hospital board was grateful to the nurses and proud of their success. She could not recall that the board of her day took any interest in the nurses; she did recall that the nurses paid for their own medals. Miss Cameton. commenting on the high standard of the nursing school in Christchurch, mentioned that the nurses and community owed much to the matrons who had served at the hospital. Nurse Maude, who founded one of the finest district nursing services in the Dominion, had been a matron of the hospital and had been followed by a succession of excellent matrons. Miss Widdowson had given inestimable service, not only to the hospital but to nursing in general. “Whenever I had a misfit or a lame dog that was difficult to place I applied to her,” said Miss Cameron. “She always took my misfits, and I am glad to say every one of them turned out well under her guidance,” She added that she felt she would soon have other work that she would ask Miss Widdowson to undertake. “Every one of the matrons who retired during the last year or two are now doing jobs for me,” she said. Qualities of a Nurse Addressing- the graduates, Miss Cameron listed the qualities that she thought were essential for a good nurse. They were (1) kindness, not only to patients, but to junior nurses and to the relatives of patients; (2) gentleness in hand and voice and manner (a quality that was now often lacking); (3) quiet cheerfulness to reassure patients and the cultivation of a sense of humour; (4) patience; <5) courtesy, which was frequently lacking in the world today; and <6) loyalty to her training school. She asked the graduates to spend at least a year at the hospital after their graduation. They would find that the knowledge and experience gained during that year were most important and valuable. “And,” Mrs Cameron concluded, “come to me at any time if you would like mv advice and guidance.”. Mr P. Stanley Foster, who said he had had 30 years’ connexion with the hospital, strongly urged the graduates to remain at the hospital for a time after graduation. • Miss Cameron then presented medals as follows:Nurses A. I. Armstrong (honours surgery). M. A. Baird. J. Baker, N. T. Baker, E. G. Barr. J. Birdling, M. N. Burgess, J. R. P. Chapman, J. I. Coates. E. Cumberbeach, A. K. Dolleymore, M. H. Duncan. I. G. Early. M. H. Foster, G. M. Gimblett. R. H. Godfrey, E. A. Gregory-Hunt; N. M. Hogan, A. A. Holmes, L. E. Horrell (Honours medicine), J. L. Kearton (Honours medicine), N. J. Kinross (Honours medicine, surgery, nursing and dietetics. First for Dominion), E. J. Limbrick,. E. S. McGhie (Honours dietetics), Y. McGill, E. E. McGoldrick, N. J. McLay, E. L. Mayne, A. Newman, B. H. Parrott, F. A. Paterson. A. L. Primmer (Honours nursing), J. G. Rhodes, J. L. Rumens, B. M. Schaffer (Honours dietetics), A. M. Shipley, R. M. Telfer, A. Thacker, K. E. J. TimbUck, J. L. Trolove, E. M. Youd (Honours medicine).

Prizes were presented as follows: — First for Dominion, prize presented by North Canterbury Hospital Board, Nurse Kinross; Practical Prize, presented by Registered Nurses’ Association, Nurse Y. McGill; Senior Medicine and Dietetics, Nurse B. Schaffer; Senior Surgery and Nursing. Nurse A. Kaneps; Junior Medicine and Nutrition, Nurse A. Angley and Nurse L. Ponsonby, equal; Junior Surgery and Nursing, Nurse J. Cardinal; Anatomy and Physiology and Nursing, Nurse M. Henshall; Florence Nightingale Medal, Nurse N. Kinross.