The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the regulator for nursing and midwifery professions in the UK. The NMC maintains a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses and nursing associates eligible to practise within the UK. It sets and reviews standards for their education, training, conduct and performance. The NMC also investigates allegations of impaired fitness to practise.
Nursing in the United Kingdom is the largest health care profession in the country. It has evolved from assisting doctors to encompass a variety of professional roles. Over 700,000 nurses practice, working in settings such as hospitals, health centres, nursing homes, hospices, communities, military, prisons, and academia. Most are employed by the National Health Service (NHS).
The New South Wales Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) is a trade union which represents nurses and midwives in both the public and private sectors of New South Wales, Australia, along with Aged Care services in the state.
Mary Carson Breckinridge was an American nurse midwife and the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), which provided comprehensive family medical care to the mountain people of rural Kentucky. FNS served remote and impoverished areas off the road and rail system but accessible by horseback. She modeled her services on European practices and sought to professionalize American nurse-midwives to practice autonomously in homes and decentralized clinics. Although Breckinridge's work demonstrated efficacy by dramatically reducing infant and maternal mortality in Appalachia, at a comparatively low cost, her model of nurse-midwifery never took root in the United States.
Nursing in Australia is a healthcare profession. Nurses and midwives form the majority (54%) of Australian health care professionals. Nurses are either registered or enrolled. Registered nurses have broader and deeper education than enrolled nurses. Nurse practitioners complete a yet higher qualification. Nurses are not limited to working in hospitals, instead working in a variety of settings. Australian nurses are in demand as traveling nurses, particularly those with advanced qualifications.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is the largest Irish professional union for nurses and midwives with 40,000 members. It was founded in 1919 after World War I, when a group of Irish nurses and midwives had a meeting in Dublin to discuss the issues in promoting an improvement in wages and advocating for a standard to be set for the conduction of their duties in the medical profession. This new organisation focused on increasing awareness towards tackling problems of pay and pension. They encouraged participation in recognising these changes by recruiting new members and establishing a standard for nursing and midwifery practice through educational initiatives. They were originally known as the ‘Irish Nurses Union’. In the 1930s, they began to promote their campaigns internationally by becoming affiliated with the International Council of Nurses. To this day they are still active and are based at the Whitworth Building in North Brunswick, Dublin.
Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), also known as Union Aid Abroad, is a non-government organisation of the Australian union movement. The non-government organisation was established in 1984 as the international aid agency of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. APHEDA was initiated in the pursuit of global justice through “stronger union and social movements, sustainable development programs, global solidarity and support in times of crisis” in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, South Africa and the Caribbean. APHEDA is also a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission.
The Queensland Nurses and Midwives' Union, officially the Queensland Nurses and Midwives' Union of Employees, (QNMU) is a trade union that represents nurses and midwives in both the public and private sectors of Queensland, Australia.
Bolton Clarke is an Australian-based provider of independent living services through at-home care, retirement living and residential aged care. It had its beginnings with the establishment of the Melbourne District Nursing Society in 1885, which later became known as the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS). RDNS merged with RSL Care in 2015, and in 2017 the organisation adopted its current name to honour two pioneers of Australian healthcare, William Kinsey Bolton and Janet Clarke.
The Australian Nurse of the Year Award was created to honour and showcase excellence in the nursing profession throughout Australia. It has become recognised as the highest civilian accolade for a nurse in Australia. There were 437,516 nurses registered to practice in Australia in 2021.
The history of nursing in the United Kingdom relates to the development of the profession since the 1850s. The history of nursing itself dates back to ancient history, when the sick were cared for in temples and places of worship. In the early Christian era, nursing in the United Kingdom was undertaken by certain women in the Christian Church, their services being extended to patients in their homes. These women had no real training by today's standards, but experience taught them valuable skills, especially in the use of herbs and folk drugs, and some gained fame as the physicians of their era. Remnants of the religious nature of nurses remains in Britain today, especially with the retention of the job title "Sister" for a senior female nurse.
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) is the peak national body that represents, advocates for, and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives in Australia.
Elizabeth Mary Chiarella AM is an Australian academic who specialises in issues relating to nursing, midwifery and the law. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, Australia and has been at the forefront of many regulatory changes to nursing practice and the nursing workforce and midwifery. These include the introduction of nurse practitioners into Australia, the move from a state based to a national regulatory system and, for midwifery, the introduction of the world's first Doctor of Midwifery and the establishment of the framework for state funded home birth midwifery in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. She is a nurse and midwife, who specialised initially in anaesthetic nursing and later in palliative care.
Irene Bolger is an Australian trade unionist, barrister and politician. She led a successful 50 day strike by nurses in Victoria. She was sacked and reinstated by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. After failing to be re-elected as branch secretary she trained as a barrister.
Barbara Carson was an Australian nurse and trade union leader who led the Victoria State branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation to its first ever strike in 1985.
