Preface

Many professionals have delivered pivotally important health services to people in remote areas of Canada, beginning in the 1600s and increasing by the mid-to-late 1800s. Of these, very few nurses or others have written stories about their experiences and about the conditions in which they worked. Fewer still have had their stories published in book form. Thus, Northern Nurses: True Nursing Adventures from Canada's North is a rarity. It constitutes an important contribution to the history of health care in Canada and is a tribute to the personal commitment, and sometimes heroism, of the remarkable people who serve in the North.

This unprecedented book is highly significant for a wide range of readers such as health services policy and priority makers and professional nursing associations who define roles of nurses in primary health care, including their new "expanded role." It is also a unique resource for nursing, medical and other health care educators who help students understand the essence of "nursing practice." And it is an unparalleled reference for nurse historians and other historical researchers who need to find "real life" documented examples of how health professionals and others provide health care to people in isolated communities, often under extremely difficult circumstances. Northern Nurses is of great relevance to nurses and other professionals, including members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are thinking about the kinds of experiences they might face if they were to "go North," and it is also of interest to those who have recently been appointed to work in remote areas.

These stories have a significance which extends beyond the North. Nurse historian Dr. Jenny Klotz, as part of her doctoral research on "outback" nursing in Australia, visited nursing stations in Canada's North. Comparing practices in both locations, she said, "The essence of remote area nursing is the same - whether it be sand or snow!"

It is with great admiration and respect that I congratulate the authors for writing these stories and the editors of this book for putting them into print for the rest of us to learn from - and enjoy. As an old Chinese saying reminds us, "The palest of ink is better than the most retentive memory."

Shirley Stinson OC, AOE, RN, EdD, LLD (Hon), DSc(Hon)
Professor Emerita
Faculty of Nursing and Dept. of Public Health Sciences
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
July 2002