“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses
The experience of some 500 Canadian and Newfoundland women who served overseas as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses during the Great War has been eclipsed by the British record. Sent as auxiliary assistants to trained nurses in the military hospitals, Canadian VADs confronted a complex mix of em...
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1998
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:10.7202/030494ar 2023-05-15T17:22:44+02:00 “Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses Quiney, Linda J. 1998-01-01 https://doi.org/10.7202/030494ar http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/030494ar en eng The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada Érudit doi:10.7202/030494ar http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/030494ar other Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada genre socio Text https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_18cf/ 1998 fttriple https://doi.org/10.7202/030494ar 2023-01-22T17:36:17Z The experience of some 500 Canadian and Newfoundland women who served overseas as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses during the Great War has been eclipsed by the British record. Sent as auxiliary assistants to trained nurses in the military hospitals, Canadian VADs confronted a complex mix of emotional, physical, and intellectual challenges, including their “colonial” status. As casually trained, inexperienced amateurs in an unfamiliar, highly structured hospital culture, they were often resented by the overworked and undervalued trained nurses, whose struggle for professional recognition was necessarily abandoned during the crisis of war. The frequently intimate physical needs of critically ill soldiers also demanded a rationalisation of the VAD's role as “nurse” within a maternalist framework that eased social tensions for both VAD and patient. As volunteers assisting paid practitioners, the Canadian VAD experience offers new insights into a critical era of women's developing professional identities. L'expérience de quelque 500 femmes canadiennes et terre-neuviennes qui, pendant la Grande Guerre, ont servi outre-mer en tant qu 'auxiliaires volontaires, a été oblitérée dans les registres britanniques. Envoyées dans les hôpitaux militaires comme assistantes des infirmières diplômées, les auxiliaires volontaires canadiennes étaient placées devant des défis d'ordre émotif, physique et intellectuel, auxquels leur statut de ressortissantes d'une colonie n'était pas étranger. Sommairement formées, et inexpérimentées dans un milieu hospitalier très structuré, elles subissaient souvent le ressentiment des infirmières diplômées surmenées et sous-estimées, dont la lutte pour la reconnaissance professionnelle avait été mise en veilleuse par la guerre. Les besoins physiques souvent intimes de soldats très malades exigeaient la rationalisation de leur rôle d'« infirmières » dans un contexte de maternage qui désamorçait les tensions sociales entre elles et les patients. En tant que bénévoles qui aidaient des ... Text Newfoundland Unknown Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 9 1 105 124 |
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genre socio Quiney, Linda J. “Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses |
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genre socio |
description |
The experience of some 500 Canadian and Newfoundland women who served overseas as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses during the Great War has been eclipsed by the British record. Sent as auxiliary assistants to trained nurses in the military hospitals, Canadian VADs confronted a complex mix of emotional, physical, and intellectual challenges, including their “colonial” status. As casually trained, inexperienced amateurs in an unfamiliar, highly structured hospital culture, they were often resented by the overworked and undervalued trained nurses, whose struggle for professional recognition was necessarily abandoned during the crisis of war. The frequently intimate physical needs of critically ill soldiers also demanded a rationalisation of the VAD's role as “nurse” within a maternalist framework that eased social tensions for both VAD and patient. As volunteers assisting paid practitioners, the Canadian VAD experience offers new insights into a critical era of women's developing professional identities. L'expérience de quelque 500 femmes canadiennes et terre-neuviennes qui, pendant la Grande Guerre, ont servi outre-mer en tant qu 'auxiliaires volontaires, a été oblitérée dans les registres britanniques. Envoyées dans les hôpitaux militaires comme assistantes des infirmières diplômées, les auxiliaires volontaires canadiennes étaient placées devant des défis d'ordre émotif, physique et intellectuel, auxquels leur statut de ressortissantes d'une colonie n'était pas étranger. Sommairement formées, et inexpérimentées dans un milieu hospitalier très structuré, elles subissaient souvent le ressentiment des infirmières diplômées surmenées et sous-estimées, dont la lutte pour la reconnaissance professionnelle avait été mise en veilleuse par la guerre. Les besoins physiques souvent intimes de soldats très malades exigeaient la rationalisation de leur rôle d'« infirmières » dans un contexte de maternage qui désamorçait les tensions sociales entre elles et les patients. En tant que bénévoles qui aidaient des ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Quiney, Linda J. |
author_facet |
Quiney, Linda J. |
author_sort |
Quiney, Linda J. |
title |
“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses |
title_short |
“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses |
title_full |
“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses |
title_fullStr |
“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Sharing the Halo”: Social and Professional Tensions in the Work of World War I Canadian Volunteer Nurses |
title_sort |
“sharing the halo”: social and professional tensions in the work of world war i canadian volunteer nurses |
publisher |
The Canadian Historical Association/La Société historique du Canada |
publishDate |
1998 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7202/030494ar http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/030494ar |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_source |
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada |
op_relation |
doi:10.7202/030494ar http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/030494ar |
op_rights |
other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7202/030494ar |
container_title |
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
105 |
op_container_end_page |
124 |
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1766109570442199040 |