Fever Nurses Association

Last updated

The Fever Nurses Association was established in London in 1908.

The founder of the organisation was Dr Biernacki, who at that time was the Medical Superintendent of Plaistow Hospital, East London. He was succeeded by Dr McIntyre. Miss Minnie Drakard was the first Nurse President. [1]

The governing body had 39 members: 20 doctors and 19 matrons and assistant matrons, mostly from fever hospitals and some from the hospitals run by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Nurse Susan Villiers was a member. [2] Miss Villiers represented fever nurses on the General Nursing Council. [3]

It was associated with the campaign for nurse registration led by Ethel Bedford-Fenwick, and was represented on the Central Committee for the State Registration of Nurses which was established in 1908. [4]

A scheme for training fever nurses was established after it was set up. [5]

The Fever Nurses Association raised the standard of training in Fever Hospitals and preceded State Registration. [6] Following State Registration examinations in fever nursing were conducted by the General Nursing Council. This resulted in a loss of revenue for the Fever Nurses Association. A Committee of Nurses reviewed the role of the Association and made a recommendation that a new Association should be formed. This was accepted and the new Association was called ‘The League of Fever Nurses’. [7] In the 1915-1916 report it was noted there were 2,189 members holding the Fever Nurses’ Association Certificate. [8]

Miss Minnie Drakard SRN, RFN, FBCN

Drakard trained at Boston Hospital, Lincolnshire, and Nottingham General Hospital. During her time as Sister in Nottingham she worked in the fever house which was used by patients with typhoid fever. [9] Drakard spent two years as Matron at Taunton Sanitary Hospital from 1893 [10] before moving to Plaistow Hospital in 1895.  On her arrival she undertook a two-year course in fever training, the first group of nurses being certificated in 1898. She was the Matron of Plaistow Hospital for 36.5 years retiring in 1932. [11] During her time at Plaistow developments in fever work included the introduction of both preventive and curative serums, and bed isolation and barrier nursing to  reduce the transmission of infections.  Developments also included immunising staff against diphtheria and scarlet fever. [12]

In 1915 Drakard went to Dunkirk to organise the nursing of a hospital for the Friends’ Ambulance Unit of the British Red Cross for cases of enteric fever among the French troops. [13] Plaistow was renowned for being a leading training school for fever nurses. She was President of the Infectious Hospitals Matrons’ Association and a member and later Fellow of the British College of Nurses as well as a supporter of the State Registration of Nurses. During her retirement she was also the President of The League of Fever Nurses. Drakard died on 12 January 1941 at home in Datchworth. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel Gordon Fenwick</span> British nurse

Ethel Gordon Fenwick was a British nurse who played a major role in the History of Nursing in the United Kingdom. She campaigned to procure a nationally recognised certificate for nursing, to safeguard the title "Nurse", and lobbied Parliament to pass a law to control nursing and limit it to "registered" nurses only.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Swift</span> English nurse

Dame Sarah Ann Swift, GBE, RRC was an English nurse and founder in 1916 of the College of Nursing Ltd. which became the Royal College of Nursing. The College of Nursing created the first registers of nurses, a blueprint for the introduction of Nurse registration in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alicia Lloyd Still</span> British nurse

Dame Alicia Frances Jane Lloyd Still, was a British nurse, teacher, hospital matron and leader of her profession. She was one of the leaders in the campaign for state registration of nurses. Following the Nurses Registration Act 1919, she was a member of the General Nursing Council (1920-1937). As chairwoman of the General Nursing Council's first Education and Examinations Committee she helped establish the first national examination standards for the registration of nurses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidney Browne</span> British nurse

Dame Sidney Jane Browne, was the first appointed Matron-in-Chief of the newly formed Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS). After she retired from the QAIMNS she was appointed as Matron-in-Chief of the Territorial Force Nursing Service. Browne was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1919 and, in 1922, she became the first President of the Royal College of Nursing, a post she held until 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Luckes</span> Matron of The London Hospital (1854–1919)

Eva Charlotte Ellis Luckes was matron of the London Hospital from 1880 to 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln County Hospital</span> Hospital in Lincolnshire, England

Lincoln County Hospital is a large district general hospital on the eastern edge of north-east Lincoln, England. It is the largest hospital in Lincolnshire, and offers the most comprehensive services, in Lincolnshire. It is managed by the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Olive Eva Anstey was an Australian hospital matron.

Alice Hannah Holford was a New Zealand nurse, midwife and hospital matron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isla Stewart</span> English hospital matron

Isla Stewart was an English hospital matron of St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and a founding member of the Royal British Nurses' Association.

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.

Annie Warren Gill & Bar was a British nurse who served as president of the College of Nursing in 1927.

Susan Villiers (1863–1945) was an English nurse who specialised in caring for patients with infectious diseases in fever hospitals, also known as isolation hospitals. She was a leading figure in the drive for better nursing education and a better-organised nursing profession, especially for fever nurses. As well as being matron of various fever hospitals, she was on the council of the Fever Nurses Association from its beginning in 1908, and she played important roles in various other organisations working towards registration of qualified nurses, better training and other improvements for the profession.

The Royal British Nurses' Association was founded in December 1887 by Ethel Bedford-Fenwick, with leading matrons from voluntary, local authority and military hospitals including; Isla Stewart of St Bartholomew's Hospital, Godiva Thorold of the Middlesex Hospital, Miss Hogg of Haslar Hospital and Anne Gibson of Brownlow Hill Infirmary, Liverpool

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erna von Abendroth</span> German nurse

Erna von Abendroth was a pioneering German nurse and trainer/teacher. After the First World War she became the first German nurse to receive a PhD degree in return for a dissertation with a nursing theme. After the Second World War, starting in May 1946 she took charge of the reconstruction of the "Werner" Red Cross Nursing Academy at Göttingen.

Rosalie Dreyer was a Swiss-born naturalised British nurse and administrator. Immigrating to England at the age of eighteen, she trained as a nurse in London and worked her way through the ranks to become matron, principal matron and chief matron-in-charge of the Nursing Service of the London County Council. Dreyer was a pioneer in the development of Britain's public-funded nursing service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Robb</span> Northern Ireland nurse (1923–2020)

Mary Kathleen Robb, OBE, OStJ, FRCN, was a nurse from Northern Ireland. Robb was the last matron of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and steered nursing services across the city during the height of The Troubles. Robb was an advocate for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and was a board member for 20 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide Kellett</span> Australian hospital matron (1873–1945)

Adelaide Maud Kellett, was an Australian army nurse and hospital matron. She served with the Australian Army Nursing Service in the First World War and was matron of Sydney Hospital from 1921 to 1944.

City of Glasgow Fever and Smallpox Hospitals (Belvidere), Glasgow, Scotland were established in 1870 and closed in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Godiva Marian Thorold</span>

Godiva Marian Thorold was a British nurse, matron, and as a founding member of the British Nursing Association influential in the development of the nursing profession in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. ↑ "The Passing of the Fever Nurses' Association". The Nursing Record. 82 (1986): 20. 1934.
  2. ↑ Currie, Margaret (2013). Fever Hospitals and Fever Nurses: A British Social History of Fever Nurses. Routledge. p. 32. ISBN   9781134265268.
  3. ↑ "The Passing of the Fever Nurses' Association". The Nursing Record. 82 (1986): 20. 1934.
  4. ↑ Abel-Smith, Brian (1960). A History of the Nursing Profession. London: Heinemann. p. 81.
  5. ↑ Hopkinson, Beatrice (2015). Nursing Through Shot & Shell: A Great War Nurse's Story. Pen and Sword. ISBN   9781473861985.
  6. ↑ "Nurses of Note". The Nursing Record. 1966: 115. May 1932.
  7. ↑ "The Passing of the Fever Nurses' Association". The Nursing Record. 82 (1986): 20. 1934.
  8. ↑ "Biernacki, J. "Fever Nurses' Association."". The Nursing Record. 56 (1473): 550. 24 June 1916.
  9. ↑ "Appointments". Nursing Notes. 4: 100. July 1891.
  10. ↑ "Nursing Echoes". The Nursing Record. 10 (271): 281. 8 June 1893.
  11. ↑ "Drakard, Minnie. "The Passing of a Nursing Pioneer". The Nursing Record. 2071: 33. February 1941.
  12. ↑ "Nurses of Note". The Nursing Record. 80 (1966): 115. May 1932.
  13. ↑ "Nurses of Note". The Nursing Record. 1966: 115. May 1932.
  14. ↑ "Drakard, Minnie. "The Passing of a Nursing Pioneer". The Nursing Record. 89 (2071): 33. February 1941.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.