Categories: N-S

Prentice, Sally Irene (1892-1982)

Sally Prentice was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and emigrated with her sister Elizabeth to Vancouver via New York.  Four other sisters and one brother also immigrated to Canada.  Sally worked at Sumas Hospital in the 1920s and 1930s and Santa Rosa Hospital in the early 1940s.  While she never had children, she helped raise a number of nieces and nephews.  At Christmas she and her sister Elizabeth competed with each other over who made the best shortbread.

Contents of Biographical File

• Biographical information

Priestly, Dorothy (ca. 191- -1988)

• See also oral history files fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8, AU0H31, CDOH36

After working as a hospital supervisor, Dorothy received her Diploma in Public Health Nursing in 1937, work to which she remained dedicated throughout her life.  In 1937 she was the first school nurse to be hired by the Prince Rupert School Board, where she spent five years.

In 1942 she started work in Chilliwack, where she joined the newly formed Public Health Nursing Council for the Fraser Valley.  From 1947 to 1949 she was President of this Council, and in 1947 became the first Public Health Nursing Supervisor to be appointed in the province, for the Central Vancouver Island Health Unit.  She was noted as a competent supervisor and gracious lady.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical information
2. Photograph (1965)

Pringle, Eden Lyall (1893-1918)

Eden Pringle was born in Scotland.  Prior to joining the CAMC in May 1917, she served in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force.  She was assigned to the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in Doullens, France, which was situated in a 15^th century fortress.  93,000 casualties were treated here between March 21 and July 10, 1918.

On the night of May 30, 1918, the hospital sustained a direct hit.  The entire operating room staff was killed instantly, including Nurse Pringle and A. McPherson, also a Canadian nurse.  Pringle received the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical notes
2. “Nurse Pringle Killed by a Shell”, Vancouver World, June 3, 1918, p. 2.
3. “Vancouver Nurse Victim of Bombs”, Vancouver Daily Province, June 3, 1918, p. 16.
4. “Heroines of Battle”, Vancouver Daily Province, June 5, 1918, 6.

Proudfoot (nee Gilfillian), Dorothy Anna  (1928-

In her varied career, Dorothy’s work from 1955 to 1957 transporting patients with the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance was among her most memorable.  She received her nursing education at the St. Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing from 1947 to 1950, and subsequently worked here in pediatrics.  She nursed briefly at the Regina General Hospital, then from 1951 to 1955 as a nursing sister with the Royal Canadian Armed Medical Core.

After her work with the air ambulance, she married and moved to Edmonton where she worked as a Medical Claims Assessor.  After some medical work in Rioja, Peru in 1962, where her husband was working on road construction, she returned to Canada to work at a variety of nursing and other positions.  From 1971 to 1977 she worked in the Local Initiative Program in Kelowna, and from 1978 to 1988 in the Long Term Care Program.  She enjoyed using her RN skills working in the community.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical information
2. Three photographs of Queen Elizabeth and Philip visiting Colonel Belcher Hospital in Calgary, 1951.
3. Brochure for Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service
4. Three photographs from the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service, 1955-1957.
5. Newspaper articles on the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service, 1956.
6. Cartoons
7. Photograph of Home Care/Long Term Unit at South Okanagan Health Unit, including Dorothy Proudfoot, 1973.  All identified.
8. Photograph

Randal, Helen Louisa (1872-1963)

In the early years of this past century, Helen Randal was instrumental in legitimizing the profession of nursing in BC.  From 1912 to 1916 she was superintendent of nurses at Vancouver General Hospital.  She organized the Graduate Nurses Association of BC, the forerunner of RNABC, and through persistent lobbying achieved passage of the Registered Nurses Act in 1918.

From 1916 to 1924 she was editor and business manager of The Canadian Nurse.  Her editorials were noted for “her unfailing humor and quick sense of the ridiculous”.  Her call for the enforcement of a standard curriculum and regular inspection of schools led to the closure of many small BC Schools of Nursing that failed to meet educational standards.

In 1944 she received the Mary Agnes Snively Memorial Medal.  After her retirement in 1941 she moved to Winnipeg, where she died at 91.  The RNABC library has been named after her.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Nomination for CNA Memorial Book
2. Biographical information
3. “Helen Randal: A Woman for All Times”, RNABC News, May-June 1987, p. 10.
4. Editorial in The Canadian Nurse (1933), 24 (3), 124-126.
5. “A Fine Record”, The Canadian Nurse (1941), 37 (4), 257-258.
6. Fairley, Grace M. “Helen Randal”, The Canadian Nurse (1944), 40 (6), 390-391.
7. Randal, Helen, “Greetings from an Oldster,” The Canadian Nurse (1951) 47 (1), 11-12.
8. “RNABC Historical Development”, pp. 3-4.
9. “Greetings: Former Editors and Executive Secretaries”, The Canadian Nurse, March 1995, 51 (3), p. 177.
10. The Helen Randal Library: To Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of RNABC, RNABC News, May-June 1987, p. 11.
11. Biographical timeline
12. Photograph
13. Two photocopied photographs with information.

Ransom (nee McLeod), Elsie “Rannie” (1896-2000)

• See Oral History files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8

Elsie was born in a log house on a ranch south of Kamloops.  She graduated from St. Paul’s School of Nursing in 1927 and spent the next six years working at the Mayo General Hospital in the Yukon.  She started to work at the Tranquille TB sanatorium in 1933, where she was supervisor on the second floor until its closure in 1958.  She then transferred to the TB unit of the Provincial Mental Hospital at Essondale until her retirement in 1961.

After retirement, she continued private duty nursing at the Royal Inland Hospital.  She later purchased a home on Little Shuswap Lake, then lived with her son in Williams Lake.  In 1999, at the age of 95, she was made honorary parade marshal for the Williams Lake Stampede Parade.  She was an avid sports fan, enjoyed making bread and preserves, and was skilled in handicrafts.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile and photocopied photograph.
2. Nomination for the RNABC Memorial Book with photograph.
3. Two supporting letters from Glennis Zilm and Blanche Hanes, November 5, 2001 and January 29, 2002.
4. Correspondence from Ella Nicholson to Glennis Zilm, n.d..
5. Letter from Ransom’s daughter to Ella Nicholson
6. Poem, “Tranquille Sanitorium”
7. “Stampede Parade Marshal Elsie Ransom Passes at 104”, The Williams Lake Tribune, October 24, 2000, p. C3.
8. Biographical notes by Corine Erikson, St. Eugene School of Nursing.
9. “A Brief History” [Biographical Notes]
10. Photograph

Ranta,  (nee McMartin) Pauline  Katharine (1914- 2010)

Pauline attended Kitsilano High School and graduated from VGH in 1938 and from UBC with a BASc (N) in 1939. She was a school nurse at Metropolitan Health Unit 3. The Lawrence E. and Pauline K. Ranta Memorial  Fund was established at  UBC.

Contents of Biographical File

1. “The Lunch Club Lives”. A collection of stories by nurses and former nurses, including “The Campbells” by Pauline Ranta.
2. Obituary Vancouver Sun
3. Photograph

Ratsoy (nee Kiss), Bernadet “Bernie” (1936-2009)

• See Bernadet Ratsoy fonds 17

After graduation from the Edmonton General Hospital in September 1957, where she was class president, Bernie spent a brief time in Spokane before moving to Edmonton where she practiced obstetric nursing at the Misericordia and Edmonton General Hospitals until 1960.

Beginning in 1966-1967 she was clinical Instructor in Obstetrics in St. Paul’s Hospital School of Nursing in Vancouver.  As Coordinator of Obstetric Nursing from 1968 to 1979, she developed and implemented the first family-centered maternity care program in BC, and was co-director of the Vancouver Perinatal Health Project.

After graduation with a BSN in 1968, she became Clinical Coordinator at St. Paul’s Hospital until 1979.  In 1981 she completed a Masters’ Degree in Health Services Planning at UBC.  As Vice-President of Nursing at St. Paul’s from April 1979 to November 1989 she was responsible for assuring quality of care in a department of over one thousand professional and non-professional staff.  From 1983 to 1985 she was also president of the Registered Nurses of British Columbia.  From 1991 to 2002 she was Associate Dean of Health Sciences at the BC Institute of Technology.

She was nominated for a YWCA Woman of Distinction award in 1988 and received the RNABC Recognition Award in 2002 for valuable contributions to the nursing profession, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Health CARE Leaders’ Association of BC in 2003.

Ratsoy’s many accomplishments include the development of a family-centered maternity care program and the initiation of a three-year prenatal health research project.  At St. Paul’s she was responsible for infection control, ambulatory services, obstetrics, rehabilitation and pediatrics.  She responded rapidly and effectively to the AIDS epidemic in Vancouver, developing nursing care and staff protection programs.  She has had over fifteen publications in books and recognized journals, and was often invited for public speaking engagements.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile with signed release
2. Biographical information by Valerie Oglor, 2009.
3. Obituary, The Vancouver Sun, October 9, 2009.
4. Eulogy by Edward Ratsoy and Inge Schamborzki, presented by Inge Schamborzki
5. Funeral program
6. Ratsoy, Bernadette. (1983). Our links with CNA. RNABC News, December,1983, p.4.
7. Ratsoy, Bernadette. (1983). What does RNABC do for me? RNABC News, October 1983, p. 3
8. Ratsoy, Bernadette. (1983). The power of collective action. RNABC News. September 1983, p. 3.
9. Beaufoy, Ann & Ratsoy, Bernadette. Man versus microbe: A case for the infection control nurse. The Canadian Nurse. December 1980,  30-32.
10. Photograph

Redmond, Sister Frances Dalrymple (1854-1932)

• See Memorial Nursing Portrait Collection Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 9, File 7

Frances Byron was born in England, and trained as a nurse and midwife at Laval University in Montreal.   She was an Anglican Deaconess who came to Vancouver in 1887. She and Father Clinton founded St  Luke’s Home,  a seven-room and general ward hospital.  She instituted a school of nursing and supervised practical work.

She dispatched nurses from this hospital to various parts of the province, and provided nurses when smallpox broke out at Vernon and Gibson’s Landing.  She also took charge of the city isolation hospital during an outbreak of small pox.  She opened a soup kitchen in Market Hall adjacent to Carnegie Library and was a member of the VON planning committee. Frances Street in Strathcona, Vancouver, is named in her honour.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical information in support of nomination to the RNABC Memorial Book.
2. Photograph
3. Davis, Chuck. (2011). Sister Franceds Redmond. Vancouver History. Copy

Richmond, Mary (1920-2002)

• See Mary Richmond Fonds 13          
• See Oral History Files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8
• See Pages of History Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 9, File 2

Mary Richmond graduated from Vancouver General Hospital in 1943, later attending McGill University to obtain a diploma in teaching and supervision, and a BSN.  In 1951, she became the Director of Nursing Education at the Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH), Victoria, where she initiated programs in the treatment of tuberculosis, public health, and psychiatric nursing.

After receiving her MA from Columbia University, she returned to RJH as director of nursing from 1957 to 1960.  In 1960, Mary Richmond left RJH to become an assistant professor of nursing at McGill.  She returned to VGH as Director of Nursing from 1964 to 1973, where she was active in forming the Council of Hospitals with the Schools of Nursing, a committee of representatives from all the nursing schools in BC.

In 1974, Mary Richmond returned to Victoria as Director of Educational Resources at RJH.  From 1976 to 1983, she was adjunct professor at UVic, while retaining her job at the RJH.  For her work with the university’s School of Nursing, she was made an honorary member of its alumnae association.  The Mary Lewis Richmond bursary was established by the University of Victoria in 1998.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile and release form.
2. Biography from “1940’s Amazing Alumni Stories” on Internet
3. “Mary L. Richmond”, Undated. Possibly from the RNABC News.
4. Richmond, Mary, “Trends in Nursing Practice and the Preparation of Nursing Personnel.”  Paper presented at the British Columbia Conference on Nursing, RNABC, April 1958.
5. “Names”, The Canadian Nurse, March 1975, p. 44.
6. Pearson, A. “Mary Richmond” in The Royal Jubilee Hospital School of Nursing 1891-1982, by Anne Pearson and the Alumnae Association, pp. 157-160.
7. Letter from E. Warbinek, B.C. HON PPG to Rob Calnan, October 11, 1994, re Mary Richmond.
8. Letter from Mary Richmond to Ethel Warbinek, January 24, 1993.
9. Honorary Membership, B.C. History of Nursing PPG April 6, 1995.
10. Mary Richmond. RNABC Memorial Book, 2003
11. Photograph
12. Obituaries
13.  “Mary Richmond”, from The Canadian Nurse, 1952.
14. “City Nurse New Chief at McGill.”
15. Note to Sheila Zerr regarding Mary Richmond display
16. Biographical information
17. Memorial Service Program
18. Memorial Tribute