Cynics Unlimited

Last week was National Nursing Week in Canada . The week was instituted to honour the contributions of nurses to the health care system and to society as a whole. In my opinion the event is particularly appropriate not only because nurses do play an important role in the world but because they often don’t get the recognition they deserve. While most of us can roll off the names of famous doctors (South African heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard and former US Surgeon General Dr. Everett Koop come to mind), when asked about celebrated nurses Florence Nightingale is usually the only immediately recognizable member of her profession.

Nursing has always held a special place in my mind because two of my aunts were nurses, Evelyn and Catherine, the sisters of my maternal grandmother and grandfather respectively. Both of them studied nursing in the 1930s in the city of Madison , Wisconsin . (Note: while I am Canadian, my mother’s entire family is American.) In those days nurses didn’t go to university or community college but trained directly in the hospital, with classrooms provided in the building for the theoretical work. So most of their education consisted literally of hands-on experience.

After graduation they both began working. Catherine was employed as a psychiatric nurse and eventually obtained a key administrative position at a mental institute just outside of Madison . Besides the doctors, she was basically head of the hospital. She married a physician herself – though I have always taken exception to the statement that girls go into nursing solely for the purpose of meeting a doctor! Ironically, despite a lifetime of caring for others, not only her patients but a stepdaughter with Down syndrome, Catherine died prematurely in her early sixties of heart disease.

Evelyn’s professional life also took a number of interesting turns. She served as a nurse in the American military in World War II and was stationed in England and France . On her return to the United States she became a nurse practitioner, a nurse with advanced training who is able to diagnose patients and carry out many of the functions physicians normally perform. Her career continued past retirement age until a few years before her death in her seventies. I like to think she was so good at what she did that her co-workers didn’t want to let her go!

I personally came into close contact with the nursing profession just over two years ago when I gave birth to my daughter Gabriella Michelle at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto . While the performance of one particular nurse there left much to be desired, the other nurses displayed both practical competence and personal compassion. I have to marvel at their great patience with some of my rather inane questions. For example, two days after the delivery I asked one of the night nurses whether my milk would come in (note: when a woman first gives birth she doesn’t produce actual milk but a yellowish substance called colostrum that provides the baby with immunities). The nurse smiled and said yes, it would, and sure enough, my breasts started making genuine milk the very next day. Looking back I laugh at the silliness of my inquiry – after all, having grown up on a farm I know that a cow will always produce milk after having a calf, so why should human females be any different? But the nurse was understanding of my fears as a first-time mother and didn’t try to belittle or dismiss me.

So please remember the nurses on National Nursing Week. RIP Evelyn and Catherine.