First Dominion President of Student Nurses’ Association

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 209, 3 September 1943, Page 2

First Dominion President of Student Nurses’ Association

At the first meeting of the Dominion executive of the Student Nurses’ Association held yesterday morning to consider i the decisions of the previous day’s con- , ference, M*ss Joan Paterson, president of the Palmerston North branch, was elect- ’ ed first Dominion president. This was a very happy and popular choice and it 1 means that the Palmerston North hos- - pital with Miss L. M. Banks (matron), l as Dominion president of the Registered [ Nurses’ Association, has provided both , ! the Dominion presidents for the senior and jun.or Associations. It is a curious ’ coincidence also that both Miss Banks • and Miss Paterson are old girls of the > Christchurch Girls’ High School. ’ Miss Paterson, who is the eld«r daughter of Mrs. K. Paterson, Fendalton, , Christchurch, had early shown a flare for . things artistic, and alter several years at [ the Christchurch {School of Art, took up | fashion drawing and commercial art. She 1 held responsible positions in various > contres, and following up all the branches ! of her work, moved over to the advertis- • ing world doing copy-writing for both L radio and newspaper advertising. Die- , tetics and Home Science had claimed her special attention at school and seeing 1 | opportunities for research and study she | eventually entered upon a nursing career ’ i at the Palmerston North hospital being ■ I now in her third year. Keenly interested - ]in the well-being of her fellow nurses, [ ! she joined up with the Student Nurses' Association first as class representative and in due course became president of i her branch. She has certainly shown > j her organising ability in the arrangej ments made for the first North Island i Dominion Conference with Miss E. , j Graham as her first assistant, and should bo well fitted to guide the 1500 student nurses, who are in the Association. Her many friends will wish her well in her new responsibility. Miss M. Hardie, of Westport, representing several branches of the Student Nurses’ Association, was elected vicepresident.