Four nurses raising funds to honour profession
‘This work of art won’t make their lives any easier, but it will at least show some appreciation,’ organizer says
Nursing is the bedrock of health care. Nurses in these parts are frequently overworked and underpaid, and, at times, undervalued.
Saturday is International Nurses Day. Brenda Noonan Brown, Maureen Fitzgerald, Catherine McIninch Murphy and Judith Tisseur Norton will be marking the occasion once again, but they are seeking a more lasting tribute to their profession, wherein Montrealers will be reminded on a daily basis of the role nurses have played in all our lives.
The four women are graduates of the St-Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing, from the class of 1968. For the last 16 months, they have been working to raise funds for a permanent work of art, a sculpture, to be prominently placed in the city.
Their goal is $115,000, of which they have already raised more than $30,000 — mostly, no surprise, from their fellow nurses as well as from their friends and families. They have the support of the city and province’s nursing orders.
The women have been working in conjunction with Montreal’s Bureau d’Art Public in order to select a sculptor and to find an appropriate location. The bureau will underwrite the cost of the
selection process as well as the cost of the infrastructure and of maintaining the sculpture and its site.
The women would also like to remind residents that among the founders of Montreal in 1642 was French nurse Jeanne Mance, who established the city’s first hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu.
“Our history starts with her, but there is already a statue of her in front of the hospital and there will be another one coming,” says McIninch Murphy, who spearheaded this project. “Her involvement in the founding of Montreal was recognized in 2011. Although she has been celebrated for her contributions to both Montreal and to nursing, those who have sustained this practise for nearly 400 years must also be recognized for their contribution to the health and the well-being of the populace.
“We want this sculpture to be an update in order to represent nurses of the present and future as well as those of the past.”
They had initially thought of something more figurative in terms of a statue, but the bureau is seeking something a little more contemporary.
“We really wanted something that’s more generic for all nursing, rather than honouring one particular nurse,” Fitzgerald says. “Actually, it will really be up to the artist. We deliver the concept, but the artist comes back to us with some choices.”
The women arrived at the $115,000 figure after consulting with various local sculptors. The bureau will be putting the project up for tender, and the sculptors who are interested will come back with a design. Then the women will sit on a jury with the bureau and ultimately a choice will be made.
“We would love it if it could all be complete by 2020,” Tisseur Norton says. “That’s the year the Quebec Order of Nurses is celebrating its 100th anniversary. More to the point, though, this is a fitting time to honour all nurses for what they’re going through right now. This work of art won’t make their lives any easier, but it will at least show some appreciation for their work, because not everybody realizes their value.”
McIninch Murphy and Noonan Brown have since hung up their scrubs, but Fitzgerald and Tisseur Norton are still working. Fitzgerald now teaches nursing, while Tisseur Norton, who still maintains her nursing licence, went on to earn a PhD in psychology and now has a clinical practise.
Perhaps not surprisingly, among Tisseur Norton’s clients are nurses.
“When it comes to work issues, I think nurses are burning out,” Tisseur Norton says. “And the sad part is that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible for psychologists and psychiatrists, doesn’t yet recognize burnout as a major problem. That’s because one of the major symptoms of burnout is depression, and often they have to be depressed before insurance companies will support the burnout. So, yeah, I see a lot of burnout.”
Those issues notwithstanding, the women are quick to point out that their project wants to focus on the positive.
“I think the general public knows that nurses are having a tough time of it of late, but they can’t really do much about that — except vote out the government,” Fitzgerald said with a slight smile. “But perhaps by contributing to this project, which we see as a positive way to acknowledge the profession, it could go a long way to help our co-sisters and co-brothers in the difficult times they are dealing with and have dealt with.”
The latter is a reference to past strikes when nurses paid hefty fines for walking out and were dealt other nasty blows by the provincial government.
“Nurses really didn’t get public support then,” Fitzgerald notes. “The reality is that some people will not have any sensitivity to health care issues unless they access the system. Because they and their families are healthy now, they have no idea what goes on.”
“But once people have experienced a nurse holding their hand and being there for them, then they are much more supportive,” McIninch Murphy interjects.
“And let’s not forget that it is a privilege to work as a nurse, and it is an absolutely rewarding career — no matter how demanding and exhausting the work can be,” Noonan Brown says.
As an added enticement to encourage contributions to the project, Tisseur Norton makes this pledge: “Eternal nursing care.”