"What Nursing Means to Me" by Janet Widholm
The Argus on Friday, September 20, 1963, announced Janet Widholm would move on to the State Finals for the Illinois Student Nurses’ Association District 6 competition for Student Nurse of the Year. To enter for the District 6 title competition, Janet was asked to write on the theme “What Nursing Means to Me.” Janet came to the Brokaw collegiate nursing program from her hometown of Ashkum, Illinois and in 1963 was a senior reflecting on her experience since entering the program. In the paper, Janet begins reflecting on what even brought her to the field of nursing in the first place. She never had an experience as a patient or even caring for the ill, instead, she read romantic books about nursing. Since the 1930s career novels were on a rise and career nurse tales were published until the mid-sixties. Titles like Kathy Martin’s Private Nurse, Hilda Nickson’s Night Nurse Lucy, and Helen Wells’ Cherry Ames series idealized the nursing profession staring independent career-focused young women who chose nursing over traditional housewifery. These books reinforced nursing standards at the time with the white uniform, organdy cap, and medical hierarchy. However, they also displayed selfless, adventurous, and dedicated young women who embrace their identity as a nurse.
Janet’s paper illustrates the influences of the “ideal nurse” portrayed in these novels. She mentions the romantic notion of being a nurse that drew her to the field, but once immersed in it she became selfless in the face of caring for the ill. Her work provides a glimpse into what training looked like in the 1960s as nurses assisted in hospitals and homes, wore the standard white uniforms and caps, and focused on their patients’ ideas of illness, pain, and death. While most nurses wear scrubs today and the caps have since been put away there still is a shared sense of compassion, community, focus on total patient care – including the medical, emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of a patient’s needs.
Janet Widholm In State Final, The Argus
See Janet Widholm in 1963 at Illinois Wesleyan University
Illinois Wesleyan University--Students--Yearbooks; Year 1963
Student Nursing in the 1960s
Mary Lewis Student Nurse (1961) - Wellcome Library
This video portrays the story of a young girl's three years' training to become a State Registered Nurse in London. This video was made from material preserved by the BFI National Archive and is a Central Office of Information film for the Ministry of Health. Made by Rayant Pictures. Photographed by David A. Holmes, edited by Nicholas Gunney, produced by Edward Deason, narrated by Francesca Annis, written and directed by Sarah Erulkar.