From nurse education, clinical, or workforce issues through to healthy living, Nursing Review has it covered.

Controversy followed a nurse survivor raising questions over the gallantry of some men during the speedy sinking of the troop ship Marquette.

The unnamed nurse's account of events was published in the Evening Post in November 2014 and said "the nurses stayed on the decks cheering the Tommies (British soldiers) until only a few of the men remained to help the women into the boats". 

News of this story prompted the New Zealand commander on board the Marquette, Colonel McGavin, to write to Defence Minister James Allen refuting the "implication that the men neglected the nurses" and stating that he himself had seen that "all the nurses were clear of the ship".  Much of McGavin's account was also published in the Evening Post in April 1916 along with material from the No. 1 Stationary Hospital in Salonika's own newspaper's account of the 'real facts'.

This article rankled veteran nurses and soon after a letter was sent to Chief nurse Hester Maclean from Mabel Wright – one of the four nurses left on the Marquette –and with it an endorsement from another army nurse who had talked to survivors.  Wright pooh-poohed the reports of nurses cheering as exaggeration but stated most definitely she was one of four nurses left on board and how she had watched a boatload of uniformed men heading away from the ship. 

Likewise Jeannie Sinclair wrote to MacLean that McGavin had later questioned her about nurses getting off the deck with the implication he knew that some had remained.

Maclean sent extracts from both letters to James Allen but after a lukewarm response from the minister that it was a "pity" to have "controversy" she let it lie though pointedly noted that she had wanted him to be acquainted "with the other sides of the story".

The Marquette nurses' bravery and demeanour was nothing but praised in the official statement on the disaster issued by fellow survivor Major Wylie of the New Zealand Medical Corp.

"Most of the rescued nurses spent all their time in the water on rafts, or clinging to bits of wreckage.

"At no time did I see any signs of panic or any signs of fear on the part of anyone, and I cannot find words adequately to express my appreciation of the magnificent way in which the nurses behaved, not only on the vessel but afterwards in the water.  Their behaviour had to be seen to be believed possible."

Read fuller account of Marquette tragedy