Monday, November 3, 2003

This presentation is part of : Rising Stars of Scholarship and Research

Canadian Missionary Nurses in China: 1921-1951

Sonya Grypma, RM, MN, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Edmonton, Canada

The sixty-year period of Canadian medical missions in China ended abruptly with the Communist victory in 1949. While volumes have been written about the controversial influence of Westerners in China, little is known about Canadian nurses. At best, they have formed a collective backdrop to the dramatic reminiscences of prominent Canadians who lived - and died - in China. Yet, Canadian nurses ran hospitals, dispensaries and public health services in nine provinces of China. Between 1923 and 1947, Canadian nurses at the North Honan Mission worked to establish nursing schools and hospital services in the middle of what became a war zone between the Japanese, Nationalists and Communists. Before their mission was closed in 1947, some nurses spent up to four years as Prisoners of War. Undoubtedly, nurses have their own stories to tell.

Purpose: To examine the lives of Canadian missionary nurses in North Honan between 1923 and 1947.

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