Chalk and Cheese - Trail-Blazing in NZ Nursing: A Story Told Through Memoir

Published by NZ Nurses Organisation, 2006.

The memoirs of two women who were closely linked with the development of Nursing Studies at Massey University gives an in-sight into NZ life in the 20th century It was a time of high excitement and an overwhelming belief in our ability to achieve a brave new world for New Zealand nurses. (Nan) What was not fully appreciated was that the object of the programme was to change nursing practice by changing the way people think about themselves and nursing. Change at that level can be painful. (Norma) I often led or facilitated discussions with a baby on one hip while its mother frantically took notes or acted out a part in a role play. (Nan) Probably I had much in common with the extramural students I was teaching. Like theirs my thinking work tended to be done late at night after the children were in bed and other chores attended to. (Norma) We were a family, and we looked out for each other. (Nan) Although not in a clinical setting, staff had not only to teach nursing they had to model it. (Norma)