History of nursing in the United Kingdom

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The history of nursing in the United Kingdom from the 1850s, showing the lobbying for, establishment and development of the state regulated profession of nursing.

Contents

19th century

Before the advent of training, nursing was often casual and low paid. Pay in London voluntary hospitals was between 6 shillings and 9s 6d a week, with some board and lodging. Outside London, pay was much lower. Few nurses were described as educated. Facilities in hospitals were poor, though some began to provide meals for nurses. The designation sister arose from the ministry of religious sisters, who were recruited separately from nurses and were more respectable, honest and conscientiously devoted to the welfare of patients (which often brought them into conflict with the hospital authorities). Matrons, whose work was largely administrative, were even more so. The Nursing Sisters of St John the Divine (est. 1848) and the All Saints Sisters of the Poor (1851) provided the nursing staff for several of London's largest teaching hospitals, including King's College, Charing Cross and University College Hospitals until close to the end of the century.

Nursing in the Poor Law infirmaries was largely carried out by able-bodied paupers, who were not paid. In 1866 there were a total of 53 nurses employed in the 11 metropolitan workhouses, at an average annual salary of £20 18s [1] (equivalent to 8 shillings per week).

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale.jpg
Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and is seen by many as the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards. In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world and led to the development of formalised nurse-training in the UK. [2]

Other women involved in nursing in the Crimea were Betsi Cadwaladr and Mary Seacole.

1858–1900

Developments in nurse education

In 1881 Eva Luckes, Matron of The London Hospital established the first two year training scheme in London. [3] She instituted a series of lectures by herself, a surgeon and a physician. In 1884 she introduced the precursor to Sister -Tutors, and selected two of her most trusted and skilled hospital sisters to give probationers extra tuition. [4] [5] Before this the nurses home Sisters at St Thomas's Hospital used to lecture probationers from the Nightingale School. In 1895 Luckes introduced the first Preliminary Training School for Nurses in England similar to that established by Rebecca Strong at Glasgow Infirmary in 1893. [3] [6] This became the blueprint for nurses education following the Nurses Registration Act of 1919. [4]

1850–1870

1870–1900

Military nursing

Nightingale laid the foundations of professional nursing with the principles summarised in the book Notes on Nursing . [7] Her highly publicised exposure of the abysmal care afforded sick and wounded soldiers energized reformers. In 1860 Queen Victoria ordered a hospital to be built to train Army nurses and surgeons. The Royal Victoria Hospital opened in 1863 at Netley and admitted and cared for military patients. Nurses were formally appointed to Military General Hospitals from 1866.

The Army Nursing Service (ANS) oversaw the work of the nurses starting in 1881. These military nurses were sent overseas beginning with the First Boer War (often called Zulu War) from 1879 to 1881. [8] They were also dispatched to serve during the Egyptian Campaign in 1882 and the Sudan War of 1883 to 1884. During the Sudan War members of the Army Nursing Service nursed in hospital ships on the Nile as well as the Citadel in Cairo. Almost 2000 nurses served during the second Boer War, the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902, alongside nurses who were part of the colonial armies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. They served in tented field hospitals. 23 Army Nursing sisters from Britain lost their lives from disease outbreaks. [9]

Princess Helena was also President of the Army Nursing Service. Following Queen Victoria's death, Queen Alexandra took over the presidency, but Helena retained presidency of the Army Nursing Reserve. [10]

20th century

1900–1914

The pressure for state registration grew throughout the 1890s and continued in the pre-War period, but was undermined by disagreements within the profession over the desired form and purpose of the regulatory system. There were six failed attempts between 1904 and 1918, the British parliament passed the bill allowing formal nurse registration. [11] A government committee reported in 1904 setting out a detailed and persuasive case for registration. However, the government sat on the report and took no action. Over the next decade, a number of Private Member's Bills to establish regulation were introduced but all failed to achieve significant support in Parliament.

In 1901 there were 3,170 paid nurses employed in workhouses, with about 2,000 probationers - about one nurse for 20 patients. In total there were about 63,500 female nurses and 5,700 male nurses in England and Wales, working both in institutions and, the majority, in patients homes. The men were almost entirely mental nurses and were not admitted to nurse training schools. Nurses in workhouses were paid about £17 a year. Hospital nurses in 1902 were paid around £19 a year, but the cost of maintenance, laundry, uniforms and accommodation which were provided was around £30 a year. In domiciliary work two guineas a week with meals provided was normal pay, and the work was easier. In hospitals 12-hour days were normal. [12]

1914-1920

First World War

By the beginning of the First World War in 1914, military nursing still had only a small role for women in Britain; 10,500 nurses enrolled in Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) and the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service. These services dated to 1902 and 1918, and enjoyed royal sponsorship. There also were 74,000 Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses who had been enrolled by the Red Cross. [16] The ranks that were created for the new nursing services were Matron-in-Chief, Principal Matron, Sister and Staff Nurses. Women joined steadily throughout the War. At the end of 1914, there were 2,223 regular and reserve members of the QAIMNS and when the war ended there were 10,404 trained nurses in the QAIMNS. [9]

The First World War provided the final impetus to the establishment of nursing regulation, partly because of the specific contribution made by nurses to the war effort and also as a reflection of the increased contribution of women more generally in society. The College of Nursing (later the Royal College of Nursing) was established in 1916 and three years later persuaded a backbench Member of Parliament (MP), Major Richard Barnett, to introduce a private members bill to establish a regulatory system.

The bill was finally passed in December 1919 and separate Nurses Registration Acts were passed for England/Wales, Scotland and Ireland, which was still part of the United Kingdom at the time. These acts established the General Nursing Council for England and Wales and the other bodies which survived intact until the legislative changes in 1979 which were to create the UKCC and the National Boards of Nursing. Ethel Gordon Fenwick was the first nurse on the English register. [17]

1920s

In the 1921 Census 111,501 women and 11,000 men declared that they were nurses. The registration regime stopped the very small hospitals from offering training. The first national examination was in 1925. About 40% of the candidates failed.

The Labour Party produced its first draft policy statement on the profession in 1926, advocating a 48-hour week, the separation of training schools from hospitals and advocating that the profession should be organised on Trade Union lines. [21]

1930s

In the 1931 Census 138,670 women and 15,000 men declared that they were nurses. 88% of the women were single, 5% married and 7% widowed or divorced.

In 1930 nurses in the voluntary hospitals worked 117 hours a fortnight in London and 119 in the provinces. In 1936 the London County Council introduced a standard 54 hour week for nurses and in 1938 moved to a 96-hour fortnight. [22]

In 1937 the Trades Union Congress adopted a "Nurses’ Charter", demanding a 96-hour fortnight, improvement of the amenities of nurses’ homes and arguing that nurses should be able to live out. [23] At that time the average nurse was working 104 hours per fortnight.

1940s

Second World War 1939-45

The armed forces estimated at the beginning of the war that they needed 5000 trained nurses. Up to 67,000 were thought to be needed to care for the expected air-raid casualties. This was more than the number of trained nurses in employment. A Civil Nursing Reserve was set up - 7000 trained nurses, 3000 assistant nurses and also nursing auxiliaries. The auxiliaries were given fifty hours training in hospital before they started work. After protests it was agreed that they should not do domestic work. 6,200 from the Civil Nursing Reserve were working in hospitals in June 1940.

The Ministry of Health guaranteed a salary of £40 to nursing students in training, about double what voluntary hospitals were paying before the war. [32]

During the war nurses belonged to Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), as they had during World War I. (Nurses belonging to the QAIMNS are informally called "QA"s.) Members of the Army Nursing Service served in every overseas British military campaign during World War II, as well as at military hospitals in Britain. At the beginning of World War II, nurses held officer status with equivalent rank, but were not commissioned officers. In 1941, emergency commissions and a rank structure were created, conforming with the structure used in the rest of the British Army. Nurses were given rank badges and were now able to be promoted to ranks from Lieutenant through to Brigadier. [33] Nurses were exposed to all dangers during the War, and some were captured and became prisoners of war.Two hundred and thirty-six nurses died as a consequence of the war. [34] Five nurses who trained at the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast, N. Ireland died in service. Ruth Hannah Dickson had served in WW1. She re-joined the QA/Rs in Singapore having been a missionary in China. The evacuation ship she was aboard was hit by a Japanese U-boat as it left Singapore. She survived the attack to be taken Prisoner of War and died in a concentration camp in 1944. Ellen Lowry and Ida Nelson were nursing with the Colonial Service in Singapore. Their ship was also attacked leaving Singapore and they drowned. Doreen Pedlow QA was aboard a ship leaving Singapore when it too was hit. Doreen drifted for three days on a raft before she died. Beatrice Dowling was serving with the Naval Nursing Service in Singapore when she too died at sea. TheirIne 5 names are on the Roll of Honour in Westminster Abbey. [35] At the outbreak of WW2 there were 640 nurses attached to QAIMNS. By the end of the war this number had risen through the recruitment of reservists to 12,000. [36]

1950s

1960s

The availability of sterile supplies brought an end to washing and sterilisation of equipment such as dressings and syringes. Edinburgh initiated the first degree in nursing. Charlotte Bentley of the "National Association of State Enrolled Assistant Nurses" worked with Irene Ward who was a member of parliament for Tynemouth and a private member's bill, the "Nurses (Amendment) Act, 1961", passed through parliament to remove the demeaning "assistant" from the State Enrolled Nurse's job title. [39]

1970s

The 1972 Briggs Report of the Committee on Nursing in the United Kingdom reviewed the role of nurses and midwives in hospitals and in community care. It made recommendations on education, training, and professional regulation . The report was accepted in 1974, [47] but recommendations from the Briggs Report were not implemented until 1979 when it formed the basis of the Midwives and Health Visitors Act (1979). [48]

Degrees in Nursing became more widely offered through universities and polytechnics which combined higher level study and practical clinical ward based training. Newcastle Polytechnic, Leeds Polytechnic, Manchester University, London University and Liverpool University were the first. Each course was different. All led to SRN - State Registration in addition to a Degree (either B.Sc or B.A). Some also included additional certifications such as: Certificate in Obstetrics (Newcastle), Certificate in Health Visiting (Liverpool). Student nurses on these courses were unpaid, but may have been eligible for mandatory/ concessionary student grants. Unlike traditional hospital training courses which took 3yrs, a Nursing Degree course lasted between 4 and 4.5 yrs. [49]

1980s

In 1983, the UKCC was set up. Its core functions were to maintain a register of UK nurses, midwives and health visitors, provide guidance to registrants, and handle professional misconduct complaints. At the same time, National Boards were created for each of the UK countries. Their main functions were to monitor the quality of nursing and midwifery education courses, and to maintain the training records of students on these courses.

This structure survived with minor modifications until April 2002, when the UKCC ceased to exist and its functions were taken over by a new Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The English National Board was also abolished and its quality assurance function was taken on board by the NMC. The other National Boards were also abolished, but new bodies were created in each country to take over their functions, for example, NES in Scotland. [52]

1990s

21st century

2000s

2010s

See also

Nursing Organisations

The List of nursing organisations in the United Kingdom includes dates of creation which illustrate the historic development of nursing. The list includes a section on historic nursing organisations in the UK that lists organisations that no longer exist.

Notable UK nurses

References

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Further reading