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• MEMORIES OF RMHCL
• • Introduction
  • Their Memories

Graduation

Training School for Nurses |  Application |  Training |  Graduation
Accommodation and Recreation |  The Faculty of Nursing at UWO

The ceremony for graduate nurses was conducted in the late May or early June at the assembly hall each year. With the attendance of the medical superintendent of the hospital, school faculty, the intermediate and junior classes, and relatives and friends of the graduates, the ceremony started with the announcement of the Florence Nightingale pledge and the invocation by the rector of a local church. The graduate nurses received their diplomas and badges during the evening, which concluded with a reception and dancing. Prizes, donated by some school faculty, were also awarded to some nurses who won the highest standing in the graduating class or the highest standing in a specific subject, such as Dietetics, Obstetrics and Gynecology. The Superintendent's prize for general proficiency was also presented.

The graduate nurses of the school distinguished themselves in outstanding working positions. Eva Moore, for example, a graduate student of the class of 1934, was selected to organize and head the new psychiatric department of Victoria Hospital in London, after she completed postgraduate work at the Phipps Institute of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The Ontario Hospital Alumnae was established in 1924 for the purpose of creating a scholarship foundation for graduates' further training. Mary L. Jacobs, Superintendent of Nurses, was the leading force behind the founding of the association. Florence Ball, graduate of the class of 1912, was the first president of the organization.