Remembrance

November is a month to reflect on how very lucky we are to live in a country like Canada!

I always spend some time looking back at what nursing was like for those brave souls who volunteered during the conflicts we were a part of as a nation.

Remembrance Day focuses on the brave soldiers and members of all the services who fought to keep us safe and free. And so it should. Anyone who has been a part of, or looked back on these periods of our history, will find that it wasn’t all guts and glory. It was a hard, long, punishing, soul-draining effort by young men and women in all but perfect conditions.

I also look at the efforts of the nursing/medical services during those very troubled times. Countless hours of surgery, bedside care with the bare minimum of equipment/ medications and always……. not enough hands to do all the work.

So many of our modern day practices rose from these times. From disinfection of areas/ instruments, separation of diseases to limit spread, discovering Penicillin to treat infection, development of transfusions of blood/ IV fluids for traumas to the start of frontline Casualty Clearing Stations, treatment of wounded on ships and EVAC practices of the more ‘modern’ conflicts, just to name a few.

In all of these areas, nurses worked tirelessly to keep the soldiers alive, and either send them back home or back to the front to continue the effort.

If you get a chance look at the Veterans Affairs Canada website:  veterans.gc.ca 

The Nursing Sisters of Canada article is particularly informative.

In November,  remember all that gave their lives so we may be free. And  remember our sisters.