After studying hard for many years, my GrandPal, Frances, graduated from nursing school in September 1962. Frances worked as a nurse for more than forty years, and she loved every minute of it. She started nursing at the age of eighteen and ended at fifty-two years old. Fran has so many stories to share about her amazing career as a nurse.
From 1959 to 1962, Frances trained at the Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. The training was three years long, and at the end, she was ready to start nursing. She learned to give people needles, deliver babies, and help during surgery. Fran did not need to go to college or university to become a nurse; her training was done on the job.
Fran knew nursing was what she wanted to do because she enjoyed caring for others. In the early years, female nurses had to wear nursing caps as part of their uniform. The caps helped keep their hair neatly together. Nurses stopped wearing caps in the 1980s. Fran was still nursing at that time, and she did not mind wearing the cap, but she was not upset that she did not have to wear it anymore. White scrubs, which were dresses, were also part of their uniforms. Nurses stopped wearing only white in the 1990s and started wearing colourful scrubs, and the uniforms no longer had to be dresses. When Fran was a nurse, she had to wear booties in the operating room, just as nurses do today. Fran also told me that husbands were not allowed to be in the delivery rooms when their wives were in labour. Now, a husband is allowed to go with the mother to hold her hand or help her during the birth of the baby. Things have really changed over the years in the nursing profession.
After her training was finished, Fran was a nurse in the operating room for many years at Barrie Royal Victoria Hospital. During her time at the hospital, Fran helped deliver over one hundred babies! In 1965, Fran was honoured to deliver the baby of her friend, Valerie. Valerie had a baby boy and named him Mark. Fran and Valerie are still friends to this day. Fran loves that she has seen Mark grow up through the years. At the time this story was written, Mark was fifty-two years old and an executive with the Canada Revenue Agency.
Fran made many good friends during her nursing career. When there was a holiday such as Christmas or Halloween, Frances and all her nursing friends would have parties to celebrate. At the parties, they would go into one of the nurses' rooms and sometimes sneak in beer and cigarettes. Fran and her friends would have a great time, but she always made sure that her patients were still well looked after!
Fran retired from nursing in 1993. One of the most exciting parts of nursing for Fran was seeing the look on a mother's face after her baby was born. Fran had a wonderful career. Although she is no longer working as a nurse, she is still very caring and has a passion for helping others. Her advice to people who want to go into nursing and be hands-on is to become an RPN, a Registered Practical Nurse. To go into the administration part of nursing, a person must take university courses and get a Bachelor of Science degree. She told me that she will never regret the career she chose. I think her patients were very lucky to have Fran as their nurse.