Nurses Registration Act 1919

Nurses Registration Act 1919

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for the Registration of Nurses for the Sick.
Citation	9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 94
Dates
Royal assent	23 December 1919
Other legislation
Repealed by	Nurses Act 1957
Relates to	Nurses Registration (Scotland) Act 1919 Nurses Registration (Ireland) Act 1919
Status: Repealed

The Nurses Registration Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 94) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The act was the culmination of a long campaign led by Ethel Gordon Fenwick to establish a register of nurses.

The Minister for Health, Christopher Addison successfully introduced the Nurses Registration Act 1919, establishing for the first time a register of nurses under the auspices of the General Nursing Council. ^[1]

There was a general register for all those trained in general nursing, and supplementary registers for mental nursing, mental deficiency nursing, fever nursing, paediatric nursing, and for male nurses ^[2] There was no mechanism for a nurse to transfer from one part of the register to another without re-qualifying.

Nurses were to be admitted to the register if they had, for three years before 1 November 1919, been bona fide engaged in practice and had adequate knowledge and experience of the nursing of the sick. ^[3]

See also

• Nurses Registration Act 1901 (New Zealand)
• Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1979

References

1. Morgan, Kenneth & Jane (1980). Portrait of a progressive : the political career of Christopher, Viscount Addison. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 103, 104, 105.
2. "The Nurses Registration Act 1919". Policy Navigator. Health Foundation. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
3. Abel-Smith, Brian (1960). A History of the Nursing Profession. London: Heinemann. p. 100.