100th Anniversary
Miami Valley Hospital
School of Nursing
AlumniAssociation 1903-2003

The Nurse Squad. There are many mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, etc MVH graduates.  This Mother, Daughter and Sister crew at right includes (center) Margy Lou Gerber-Munson. Left is Margy's daughter Katrina Weisenbach. Right is Christy Gerber-Jones, sister to Margy and creator of this website

Significance of the Cap

Written by Louise Schroeder, Superintendent of Nurses and appearng in The Lamp in 1931.

"From ancient times the word"cap", as an article of clothing, has meant a covering of the head. The early Romans and Greeks usedthe lappet of their gowns to throw over their heads as a protection against the sun and rain.  Caps, as we know them, did not come into general use until the year 1449. At that time if the cap was of velvet it was called a mortier and could only be worn by kings, princes and knights.If of wood, it was designated as a bonnet, the head-dress of the clergyand graduates. The giving of the cap to students signified that they had acquired full liberty and
were no longer subjects to the rod of their superiors.

Thus, we see that evn over 400 years ago, the cap was considered a symbol of something accomplished, something gained through personal effort, just as it is today. With the possession of the first cap comes the realization of responsibility, so that if it brings added liberty, it also brings added responsibility. The material and style of the cap matters not because it is always beautiful in its significance to the nurse who wears it. Let those who have earned this privilege wear it proudly, with dignity, and with a deep consciousness of the spirit of it.

Our (MVH) graduate cap is an adaption of the Blockley (Philadelphia General) Nurses' Cap that was worn by Miss Crandall and Miss Clayton, but with one variation. The fluting at the back was altered. Lindsay Metcalfe Brien, a 1902 graduate, wrote, "Miss Crandall initially wanted to put the Deaconess cap, with a little bow in front, on us. We said, NO! She finally gave in and gave us the Blockley Cap, without the tail." It is interesting to note that three were no changes made to the cap as worn at the first graduating class ceremony in 1902 to the last graduating class in 1986.

To further trace the genealogy, Miss Alice Fischer, who was the first Superintendant of Nurses of Blockley Hospital was a graduate of the Nightingale School of England and in deciding upon a cap for Blockley her graduate cap was modified for the graduate cap of Blockley Hospital.

Therefore, MVH graduates should be proud that we have in direct descent something that has been so dear to the early traditions and the importance of which has been impressed upon all students and graduates of our School of Nursing. Let us never forget what our  beautiful cap signifies - TRADITION and SERVICE!


The Graduate Nursing Pin

Written in 1900 by the founders of the Miami Valley Hospital School of Nursing, Ella Phillips Crandall and S. Lillian Clayton.

We have wrought this insignia of our school out of fine gold, which to us, represents true womanhood.

Our insignia is a perfect square, the sides of which represent four elemental qualifications of a nurse.

The first side of the square is KNOWLEDGE. To this we give a two-fold interpretaions: first, knowledge of self, without which, no one can be strong to meet the exigencies of life; and second, knowledge of her profession.

The second side of the square is FAITH. Expressing her belief in God, humanity and herself. This faith becomes stable through, if indeed it does not emerge from, her knowledge or herself, because through the latter she interprets both God and her fellow being. From her knowledge of herself and of her profession, coupled with her faith in God, humanity and self, she gathers courage, without which her life as a nurse would be utterly impossible.

Therefore, the third side of the square is COURAGE. Out of her knowledge, faith and courage, service comes forth as a plan in fertile soil. Service is the ideal reality of a nurses's life. It is essentially altruistic. It is a warm, vigorous, pulsating thing. It bespeaks life. It stands in sharp contrast to the idea of sacrifice, which for ages has been inseparably associates in the public mind with our profession. But sacrifice suggests death and,  as best, expresses something  austere and cheerless. Indeed, its original significance was expiation and renunciation in the hope of personal gain. In contrast to service, therefore, it is even cold and selfish.

Therefore, we have chosen SERVICE as the base of the square.

In the center of this square is found a GRECIAN LAMP with steady flame, expressing watchfulness. To this also we have given a two-fold interpretation: First, watchfulness untoself, that the nurse's life shall not belie her ideals; and Second, Vigilance over the well-being of her patients.

Until now, each of you has, consciously or unconciously, lived within the protection of your school, which has been not less your guardian thanyour teacher. From hence, we send you forth as a marianer on an untried sea, with a fervent prayer that, through all the perils of doubt, perplexith and terrible responsibility, which you must encounter, this medal may be your compass and your guiding star.

Therefore, fastening this symbol of honor and trust upon your breast, we enjoin you to bearforever your share of the maintenance of its lofty ideal, thereby, proving the words of  the poet, "The Ideal is the Real."

The Valley School Hymn

SERENITY

by John Greenleaf Whittier


1.
We may not climb the heav'nly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the low-est deeps,
For Him no depths can drown.

2.
But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He
And faith has yet its Olivet
and love its Galilee.

3.
The Healing of His Seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again.

4.
O Lord and Master of us all,
What-e're our name or sign,
We own Thy sway, we head Thy call,
We test our lives b thine!

The 5th stanza is softly hummed.

Amen.

Lily of The Valley      

A tribute to the Student Nurses was written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar after he was a patient at Miami Valley Hospital.

Sweetest of the flowers a-blooming
In the fragrant vernal days
Is the Lily of the Valley
With its soft retiring ways.

Well you chose this humble blossom
As the Nurse's emblem flower,
Who grows more like her ideal
Every day and every hour.

Like the Lily of The Valley
In her honesty and worth
Ah, she blooms in truth and virture
In the quiet nooks of earth.

Tho' she stands erect in honor
When the heart of mankind bleeds,
She still hides her own deserving
In the beauty of her deeds.

In the silence of the darkness
Where no eye may see or know,
There her footsteps shod with mercy,
And fleet kindness come and go.

Not amid the sounds of plaudits,
Nor before the garish days,
Does she shed her soul's sweet perfume,
Does she take her gentle way.

But alike her ideal flower
With its honey-laden breath
Still her heart blooms forth its beauty
In the valley shades of death.

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