Nursing
In the mid 1980s Marilyn Marsh interviewed a group of Newfoundland nurses who graduated between 1918 and 1949 and worked in a variety of nursing settings and locations in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) and in several cases internationally. The interviews were transcribed by Jeanette Walsh and Marilyn Beaton and sixteen of them published in the book ‘A life of caring: 16 Newfoundland nurses tell their stories’ in 2008. For a variety of reasons not all interviews were suitable for publication. The nurses’ stories capture what life was like for women and nurses during that era. Women in the 1920s and 30s had few career options. Most chose to stay in their community, marry and have families. For those wishing to pursue a career, to travel or were adventuresome, nursing provided the greatest opportunities but for many also their greatest challenges. These tapes reveal their lived experiences and provide insight into who they were as women and nurses.