Military nurses mark 110th anniversary at Hawke’s Bay hospital Anzac Day service

The 110th anniversary of the formation of the New Zealand Defence Force’s Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps (RNZNC) was celebrated at the annual Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Anzac Day service.

Nurses were first engaged in the New Zealand armed forces as early as the Boer War, in 1899, when 27 nurses saw active service. The Corps was formed in 1915 from civilian nurses who volunteered for service during the First World War, and since then the role of the military nurse has formalised into the professional military nursing capability it is today. Although the Corps is an Army capability, its nursing officers work with all three military services and have to adapt to any working environment across land, sea and air.

Since the formation of the Corps, nursing personnel have been engaged with every major conflict that New Zealand has ever been involved with. Today they are deployed domestically and internationally on exercises and have served in recent New Zealand Defence Force operations in countries such as Egypt (Sinai), Iraq and Afghanistan.

This year’s service at the hospital was led by local nurses who are members of the Corps, and to mark the special relationship they have with the hospital, the Corps presented their centenary book and a memorial board of its nurses who have served there to Chief Nurse Karyn Bousfield-Black.

The MC for the day, Senior Nursing Officer Major Sarah Linehan, said the Anzac Day hospital service is always special, just like the relationship between the RNZNC and the hospital.

“To honour the service of nurses and nursing today on Anzac Day, when we honour our fallen, is fitting. Nurses are present throughout the lifespan and are dedicated to providing care whenever and wherever it is needed most. Whether military or civilian nursing, it is not for the faint-hearted. Kia aroharoha kia maia – Compassion with Courage is the motto of the RNZNC and can also be applied to our civilian colleagues,” she said.

Attendees at the service, held outside the hospital chapel which is itself dedicated to nurses, paid tribute to generations of military nurses, and Mrs Bousfield-Black spoke of the deep connection between care and courage.

“Long before nursing became the profession it is today, people were taking care of one another,” she said.

“The military nurses we honour here today stood up and said ‘We will not let our boys face war alone. We will go with them’.

“It’s very special to be able to acknowledge and reflect on the contribution of nursing and military nursing on Anzac Day. Four-hundred Kiwi nurses served in the First World War and more than 4000 in the Second World War. Their bravery, resilience, compassion and care should be remembered along with that of our soldiers.”

Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s link with the RNZNC remains strong, with military nurses conducting clinical placements to maintain professional currency, as they do at other hospitals around New Zealand.