Trailblazing New Brunswick nurse, co-founder of VON, 'wanted to help people'

She's the pioneering New Brunswick nurse and contemporary of Florence Nightingale that you've probably never heard of.

Elizabeth Robinson Scovil co-founded the Victorian Order of Nurses, wrote bestselling books on child health and parenting, was a founding editor of The Ladies Home Journal,The American Journal of Nursing and Canadian Nurse and was a founder of the National Council of Women of Canada.

Those noteworthy accomplishments are now chronicled in a biography by Scovil's grandniece, Virginia Bliss Bjerkelund, called A Nurse For All Seasons: Elizabeth Robinson Scovil 1849-1934, published by Woodstock's Chapel Street Editions.

Bjerkelund still remembers a visit with her great-aunt Bessie in 1933.

Virginia Bliss Bjerkelund has written a biography of her pioneering great-aunt, whose many accomplishments have been largely forgotten by history. (Peter Bjerkelund.)

She can picture the 84-year-old's face smiling down at her as she sat on the floor in front of the fireplace.

Four-year-old Virginia was fascinated by the little button on Scovil's twirling shoe.

"It's remarkable that the memories go back so far," she said, in an interview with CBC Radio's Shift.

As she grew up, Bjerkelund discovered many more remarkable things about her impressive relative.

For example, she is amazed, in retrospect, that this woman whom she knew, also knew the person credited as the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale.

Scovil visited Nightingale in England in the 1890s, Bjerkelund said.

Nightingale, who was 29 years older than Scovil, made a name for herself leading the care of casualties during the Crimean War.

Scovil had grown up in an affluent family in Saint John, but her father went bankrupt from "unwise investments," said the author.

She spent 11 years living with relatives outside of Fredericton, in the area now known as Douglas, before she decided to follow in Nightingale's professional footsteps at the age of 29.

"I think she knew she didn't want to be married like her cousins and produce a baby every year … and I think she knew she wanted to help people," said Bjerkelund.

Bjerkelund said she still remembers posing for this photograph with her great-aunt and her grandfather in Amherst, N.S., in 1933. (Submitted by Chapel Street Editions)

She trained in one of the earliest years of the nursing program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and soon after gained some "wonderful experience" as superintendent of nursing at the Newport General Hospital in Rhode Island.

Bjerkelund learned about this through letters an American cousin found in an attic. She had a lot of other material to work with as well, including articles written by Scovil and speeches she gave.

She was especially surprised by one speech, given to Canadian nursing superintendents during the First World War.

"There had been quite a lot of criticism about the Allied nurses treating German prisoners of war and soldiers," said Bjerkelund.

"Bessie supported them, completely."

"She said, 'We are nurses. We know no national boundaries. A sick German needs a nurse just as much as a sick Englishman or sick North American.'"

Advice on dealing with doctors

In her writings, Scovil was "very generous" with advice about how nurses should behave, said Bjerkelund.

Around the turn of the 20th century, nurses often lived with families while they were caring for patients.

This meant they became privy to a great deal of sensitive information, such as arguments and family secrets, she said.

Scovil counselled her nurse readers to "under no circumstances pass on any information that you have."

She offered another "bit of good advice" on dealing with doctors, said Bjerkelund.

"Even if you know he's wrong, you have to take into consideration his power," she said.

"You don't say, 'You're an idiot and I know better than you do,' because that upsets the whole system."

But neither should the nurse stand by and watch their patient be killed, said Bjerkelund.

Scovil urged nurses to take the doctor aside for a private conversation and "very gently" suggest how treatment might be "modified slightly."

"She was very wise."

Scovil trained in one of the earliest years of the nursing program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. (Submitted by Chapel Street Editions)

Bjerkelund "kind of grew up with Aunt Bessie" because she helped raise her mother, Mary Scovil. Mary's mother died of diabetes that developed during her pregnancy for another child.

Some of Bessie's pearls of wisdom came through in Mary's child-rearing.

For example, if little Virginia complained about receiving too small a portion, she'd hear, "As Aunt Bessie would say, 'Better a small fish than an empty dish.'"

She thinks her great aunt would be encouraging of her recent literary exploits.

Previous to this latest book, Bjerkelund published a historical novel in 2020 called Meadowlands, which tells the story of her mother's family living on an island near Gagetown in the early 1900s.

But she imagines Scovil would try to downplay her own accomplishments.

That's often the way of truly accomplished people, said Bjerkelund.

"There's no need to seek out praise when it's sort of on your doorstep."