The Funeral of a Nursing Sister

Rider-Rider, William, “Funeral of a Nursing Sister” Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-002562

An aspect of the lives of the nursing sisters that is not commonly addressed is the mental health of the nursing sisters upon their return to Canada after the war, this is an aspect that is not commonly discussed as there is not much literature that exists that details this kind of information. Once the war had come to a stop and the nurses returned to Canada approximately 29% of nurses applied for pension, 16.7% of these nurses who applied had reported that they had been having nervous or mental problems that are believed to be caused by their time serving in the war, this highlights the mental toll that the war had on the nurses, even though they weren’t involved with the combat itself, the things that they had witnessed had been enough to traumatize them for life. Though most of the stories told by the nurses are stories that highlight the good memories they had cherished it is important to remember that these nurses had also witnessed gruesome injuries, been victims of enemy attacks on their hospitals and had also been suffering from exhaustion and fatigue due to he fast pace of their work environment.

Sources:  

Rosenthal, L. (2023). “Extremely Depressed with a Hopeless Outlook”: The Experiences of Psychologically Traumatized Nursing Sisters During and After the First World War. War in History, 30(4), 391-407. https://doi-org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1177/09683445221133067