Bernice Redmon

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Bernice Isobel Redmon was a Canadian nurse and the first Black public health nurse in Canada. She was born on October 28, 1917, in Toronto, to George Nathaniel Carnegie and Jane Adina Mitchell, who had moved from Jamaica in 1912. She grew up in the northern suburbs with eight siblings in a largely Black family. In the 1940s, Black Canadians faced discrimination when applying to nursing schools, so Bernice moved to the United States for training. She studied at St. Philip Hospital Medical College in Virginia and earned her nursing diploma in 1945. With a scholarship for an extra year, she qualified in public health nursing as well. On June 23, 1945, she became the first Canadian-born Black registered nurse in Canada. She had trouble finding work due to racism, but she eventually joined the Nova Scotia Department of Health to practice public health nursing, after a three-month wait for board approval. She later joined the Victorian Order of Nurses, becoming the first Black woman to hold a leadership role there. By the late 1950s, more Black women worked in Ontario hospitals. Redmon's work helped increase Black representation in healthcare and influenced groups like the Canadian Black Nurses Alliance. She died of lung cancer on October 23, 1993.