Changing Times

 July 12, 2022

Calls by Black leaders to end the blanket discrimination against Black nurses finally bore fruit. KEMH lifted its ban against the hiring of Black nurses following a recommendation of the 1953 Inter-Racial Committee.   In 1958, two UK-trained Black nurses joined the staff of KEMH.…Read more

Sterling Community Service

 July 12, 2022

Sylvia Richardson, Iris Davis and Caro Spencer Wilson gave sterling service to the community. The one bright spot for Black Bermudian nurses was the Health Department, popularly known as the Clinic. Sylvia Richardson was the first Black nurse taken on. Iris Davis was second.   Sylvia…Read more

Scholarship Winners

 July 12, 2022

In 1947, Edna Pearman Jones and Dr. Juanita Guishard Packwood set off for the UK, the first two recipients of four-year nursing scholarships. The UK had offered a full scholarship each year to an aspiring nurse from Bermuda—but the Bermuda Government declined the offer.  …Read more

Lorraine Dyer Bizek: Trailblazer and mentor

 July 12, 2022

Lorraine Dyer Bizek, one of the first Black Bermudians to train in the UK, was Bermuda’s first Queen’s Nurse. Nursing was her first love. She started out at the Bermuda Nursing Home. In 1937, she left Bermuda for Birmingham General Hospital nursing school. She became…Read more

E.F. Gordon and the Gordon Girls

 July 12, 2022

Dr. E. F. Gordon’s first battle after arriving in Bermuda in 1924 was in support of Black Bermudian nurses. He was highly critical of the requirement for district nurses to be Queen’s Nurses. This was a UK qualification that automatically excluded US-trained Black Bermudian nurses.…Read more

The Cottage Hospital Nursing Home

 July 12, 2022

In 1936, the Bermuda Nursing Home moved into the Cottage Hospital building, and was renamed the Cottage Hospital Nursing Home.  In 1937, Nurse Sylvia Richardson, who began her training at the Nursing Home, became the CHNH’s first graduate. The CHNH, which had about 20 beds,…Read more