Sketchbook, My Life as a Nurse

« Prev Item Next Item »

1951 - 1954

Overview

Sketchbook containing hand drawn sketches by Jean Davidson documenting her experience as a trainee nurse in the RPH Preliminary Training School from 1951 until her graduation on 18 October 1954.

The first page of the book is titled in bold blue lettering:

‘My Life as a Nurse
(for adults only)
Royal Perth Hospital
By Jean M Davidson’

The last pages also include a section titled:

‘My Life as a Trainee Midwife
KEMH
Nov 1954’

and

‘Airforce
WRAAFNS
No N54557
Base Hospital Laverton Victoria
Dec 17th 1955
Flying Officer Davidson’

Along with the drawings the book includes black and white photographs of Jean as a student nurse and a reference letter on RPH letterhead dated 20th January 1955 from Matron Siegele to ‘Whom It May Concern’.

Historical information

Jean Davidson commenced her nursing training at Royal Perth Hospital on 30 April1951. She kept a journal of her training, her remarkable drawings depicting her journey from preliminary training school to graduation of RPH and KEMH.
Jean commenced her training as a midwife at King Edward Memorial Hospital in November 1954, and there developed her passion for women’s and maternal health.
She left nursing to marry and had five children. She returned to nursing in 1972 as a midwife in Narrogin Hospital for 10 years and then moved to Geraldton and worked as midwife at St John of God Hospital. Jean retired in 1993. She passed away in 2019.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-48-BK2025.30

Item type

Diaries

Material

Paper

Plastic

Width

218 mm

Height or length

270 mm

Depth

17 mm

Place made

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Year

1951 - 1954

Statement of significance

Jean Davison’s funny and personal visual diary, ‘Life of a Nurse’, provides insight into the demanding role of a student nurse in the early 1950s. Through extraordinarily detailed cartoons she has created a record of life in the RPH Preliminary Training School, featuring daily duties, buildings, wards, equipment and the names of tutor sisters. Images capture activities, places and practices that are now redundant including patients’ beds on verandahs, urine tests over Bunsen burners, and the Shenton Park Rehabilitation Hospital.

Primary significance criteria

Artistic or aesthetic significance

Historic significance

Social or spiritual significance

Comparative significance criteria

Interpretive capacity

Object’s condition or completeness

Rare or representative

Well provenanced

Public location

Royal Perth Hospital Museum

Last modified