NURSES’ TRAINING
On Thursday,
October 17, 1957, Their Imperial Majesties awarded diplomas to 24 Graduates of
the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital School of Nursing and to 8 graduates from
the Empress Zawditu Memorial Nursing School. The ceremony took place at the
Princess Tsahai Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa. His Imperial Majesty Haile
Selassie I made the following speech:
“There is nothing that tends more readily
to induce in our heart feelings of joy and solace, than to see the youth of Our
land growing up and maturing through education, in whatever sphere it may be.
All the knowledge to be drawn from the fountain-head of education, not only
contributes to the well-being of mankind and to the performance of humanitarian
deeds, but is also a veritable pillar upholding the liberty of the land. It is
by the strength of the knowledge gained from education that man develops his
ideas and brings his labours to success.
In choosing for your own sphere the vocation
of nursing – the caring for and tending of the sick – you have made a noble
choice, for it is one of the truly humanitarian professsions. However, it will
not always be in hospitals fitted with every convenience that you will carry
out this your chosen task; you will have to go to all sorts of places where
toil and trouble await you. Your training and your profession make this
incumbent upon you. But how great a thing it really is, to be able to help your
fellow-men, tortured by pain and troubled by disease – to bring rest and relief
to body and soul alike! Your own awareness of it may be limited, but the
patient who receives your care will surely feel it and appreciate it deeply.
This
said, it becomes necessary for Us to repeat to you today the words of advice
which We gave in 1956, to your sister nurses, on the occasion when they
similarly received at Our hands their certificates of graduation: “Your
profession calls for discipline – the discipline of study and devotion to
obedience and duty, the discipline of self-restraint and cleanliness, and the
discipline of life-long devotion to learning, since knowledge knows no bounds.
If you take these fundamental disciplines as your guiding principles, your work
will display the highest qualities.” You must be nurses not merely in name, but
truly in the obligations of that noble calling.
We are today laying the foundation-stone
of a branch, which – subsidized by a joint Ethiopian and Swedish fund – will,
in connection with this hospital, care for the health of expectant mothers and
infants. We are very much pleased that in addition to its other functions this
establishment will provide training for the nursing profession. We trust that
the School will prove fruitful in supplying an adequate number of nurses.
Our beloved daughter, Princess Tsahai
Haile Selassie, who was cut off in the flower of her youth, completed her
training as a nurse. Following the example of Florence Nightingale, she sought
not her own comfort and pleasure, but sacrificed herself in the service of the
sick and the suffering. With sincere devotion and compassion, she applied
herself to the task of succouring and comforting the sick. You who work or
learn in this Hospital which bears her name should have her example engraved on
your hearts and minds!
We should like to thank the teaching staff
of the Nursing School and the medical staff of the Hospital, who are caring for
the sick and needy.”
Oct. 17, 1957.
Selected Speeches of His
Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie - page 49 -
&
Speeches delivered by His
Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie Ist Emperor of Ethiopia on various occasions -
page 13 -
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| Cutting the tape at the opening of the Princess Tshai memorial Hospital (1951) Addis Ababa (Princess Tshai was one of his daughters, nursed in England during the second world war and who died in England). L to R: WB, The Empress, Silvia Pankhurst (behind), The Emperor and the Crown Prince. |
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| Princess Tshai Memorial Hospital Addis Ababa 1951. |
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| Empress Menen Asfaw seated in the center and Standing women from left to right are Princess Tsehai, Princess Tenagnework, and Princess Zenebework, her daughters, and on the far right is Princess Wolete Israel Seyoum, her daughter-in-law. |
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| Operating Theatre. L to R: Theatre Sister, Matron (in background), WB, HIM QHS, Silvia Pankhurst and The Empress. |
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| Opening of the Princess Tshai memorial Hospital showing from L to R: Col Curl British Consul, Dr William Byam Director of the hospital, in background, The Emperor Hailie Selassie, Mr Busk the Ambassador. |
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