Training as a Hospital Assistant

Heroes Remember

Training as a Hospital Assistant

Transcript

We had basic training the first month and then I was sent off to St. Thomas, Ontario where there was a big hospital. It had been built by Mitch Hepburn’s government as a mental hospital and when the war came along the federal government took it over to make it a technical training school. Now my training consisted of on-the-job training. Here is how you bath a patient, this is how you take temperatures. We had contact training. I never did have a full course and the trade was at that time called a hospital assistant, which is a forerunner to the registered nursing assistants. We didn’t give medications, but we did the bed care and the temperatures, passed out the meals and made the beds and that sort of thing.

Description

Mrs. Pidgeon describes her role as a hospital assistant where on-the-job training was provided for doing such tasks as bathing patients, taking temperatures and maintaining the comfort level of the wounded soldiers.

Irene Pidgeon

Irene Maria Armstrong was born in Shawville, Quebec on November 19, 1925. She attended school in her local community and before joining the RCAF, she worked for the Federal Government in Ottawa. She spent her military service in Canada working as a hospital assistant. After her discharge from the RCAF in August 1946 she married an airman, Mr. T. John Pidgeon. They had four children and throughout military life, she promoted recognition for the role of a military spouse, spending four years in France while her husband continued his service. In 1964, her family moved to Ottawa, Ontario. Mrs. Pidgeon is very active in volunteer activities and devotes much of her time to the recognition of the Women’s Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

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