More Info →Foxton Maternity Home 1942-1982 Page 20

Description

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do so much night-duty in my career as a nurse, only retiring from nursing last year as a night nurse on a busy acute medical ward at Nelson Hospital.

Thank you Jessie McDowell. (Nee Cochrane)

(Former nurse- aid)

A, "Herstory"

Yolande was born in Calcutta India, in 1933. Her father was a doctor in the Army who met her mother while she was working as an untrained matron in a convent hospital unit. There were four brothers born and Yo was the only daughter. When the family came to New Zealand a suitable choice for Yo's future was between nursing and teaching. Her by father chose nursing for her and Yo found that she loved nursing.

The span of Yo's nursing life was 1951 until her retirement in the mid 1990s and encompassed two marriages and raising a family.

For the purposes of this, "her story", the years 1951- 1970 will be focused on in relation to the socio-historical issues of the time and these issues will be compared with us present day nursing.

The issues include nursing, education, hours of work, work, work duties, responsibilities and representation.

During this time Doctor Doris Gordon organised a campaign to endow a chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at Auckland University in 1956 and Doctor Agnes Bennett became the first woman doctor appointed to a NZ public hospital in 1960. Generally however, nursing was seen as the natural setting for a woman.

Yo commenced training at Palmerston North Hospital in 1951 at the age of 18 years and the qualification for entry was two years at a secondary school.

This remained the entry requirement until 1966 when school certificate was needed for the then current general/obstetric nursing programme introduced in 1957 and now in the present day school bursary is needed to enter a Bachelor of Nursing programme.

Male and female training was separate until 1969 and the students were required to pi-live in a nursing hostel.

Before entering the wards in 1951, students went into a study block for six weeks and in throughout their training there were regular two week study blocks with lectures from heir tutor and doctors.

Work in the wards was twelve hour days and a six day working week. Male and females were nursed on separate wards and there was experience in the diet kitchen, medical and surgical wards, children's wards, theatre and infectious wards.

There was no disposable equipment and although vacuum cleaners were available in the community none were available on the wards at the time. Duties included using wet tea leaves to keep the dust down when sweeping, continuous sterilising procedures by boiling or autoclaving and cleaning the legs of wooden screens used for privacy.

Tuberculosis (TB) and polio were common infectious diseases of the time and streptomycin was used as the first antibiotic effective against TB. Patients were nursed in open air wards, in full length gowns, turbans and masks.

An iron lung was in use for polio cases which made a constant whining noise.

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Identification

Date

2005