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
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
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
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
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
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