Lake-to-Lookout Walk: Early Nursing

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Lake-to-Lookout Walk. Early Nursing. Early Nursing As elsewhere, in 18th and 19th century Newfoundland nursing was rarely viewed as a career. Care was normally provided in the home and nursing the sick was the responsibility of the women in the household. After the first public hospitals were established, paid attendants, both male and female, were still not expected to have any formal training. The first systematic nurses training school in Britain was established by Florence Nightingale in 1860. It was also in 1860 that St. John's native Janet Cowan became 'matron' (or head nurse) at the Riverhead Hospital. Having been trained in nursing care by medical superintendent Dr. H.H. Stabb, Cowan proceeded to train her younger sister, Agnes. When Janet Cowan died from tuberculosis in 1865, Agnes became matron. Agnes Cowan oversaw the move of patients to the new General Hospital and was matron until 1893, when she also died of tuberculosis. Over the next decade, the first nurses from Newfoundland were qualified in the United States, including Margaret Rendell and Lucy Hannaford. Both left the profession on getting married, in keeping with the social conventions of the day. In 1903, Mary M. Southcott became Nursing Superintendent at the General Hospital. Southcott established high standards of personal and professional conduct for her staff. She founded the General Hospital School of Nursing, as well as the Graduate Nurses Association, forerunner of the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland. She is considered the founder of modern nursing in Newfoundland. Mary Meager Southcott The towering residence for the General Hospital School of Nursing, Southcott Hall, was opened in 1964 — just over a century after the birth of its namesake. Mary M. Southcott was born in St. John's in 1862, the daughter of John and Pamela Southcott. Her father, uncle, and cousin were prominent city builders and architects — the 'Southcott style' being characteristic of much of Victorian St. John's. Mary Southcott was in her mid-30s when she inherited her father's share of the business. In 1899 she began a two-year course in nursing at the London Hospital. After graduation she worked in England, returning to Newfoundland in 1903. She was appointed the first Superintendent of Nursing at the General Hospital. At that time Southcott was the only trained nurse on staff — a situation she immediately sought to remedy by founding a school of nursing based on the Nightingale system. Her devotion to teaching and to nursing reform did much to establish the General Hospital as a treatment facility, a hospital in the modern sense. Southcott struggled to upgrade nurses' pay and status. Her views on the autonomy of nursing led to a clash with the Resident Superintendent, Dr. L.E. Keegan. A Royal Commission was appointed in 1914 to look into the operation of the Hospital. Southcott was forced to resign in early 1916, but went on to distinguished service in private hospitals and as a volunteer promoting child welfare. From 1918 until a stroke forced her retirement in the mid-1930s she ran a hospital for women, children and maternity cases out of her former family home at 28 Monkstown Road. In 1923 she helped design the nursing course for the Grace Maternity Hospital. Mary Southcott was also active outside the nursing profession in the women's suffrage movement and the Girl Guide movements. Agnes Cowan 1839 – 1893. This is the only known picture of Agnes; the original hangs in the Cowan Hostel at the Health Sciences Centre. Lucy Hannaford 1874 – 1960, left, and Margaret Rendell 1863 – 1949 Patients and medical staff on the Cowan Ward in the old General Hospital. Mary Southcott 1862 – 1945 The old General Hospital (at right) with the Carson 'dirty' (i.e. infectious) surgical Ward on the ground floor, and the Cowan 'clean' surgical Ward on the top right, top story. The newer wing, behind at left, is the Victoria Alexander Wing, built with funds bequeathed by Miss Isabella Alexander and those raised by the Cowan Mission, including private donations from Mrs. R.G. Reid and the women of Newfoundland. The government contributed just $4,000. The laying of the Victoria Alexander Wing's cornerstone on Victoria Day, 1903, was the first time a woman addressed a public gathering in Newfoundland. Johnson Family Foundation · Grand Concourse

Commemorates 1860–1945 · Johnson Family Foundation · Grand Concourse