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 Hos pital, Godiva Thorold of the Middlesex Hospital, Miss Hogg of Haslar Hospital and Anne Gibson of Brownlow Hill Infirmary , Liverpool [1] [2]
The early objectives were : to obtain a charter to enable the association to examine and register nurses, conferring degrees ; to devise schemes for annuity pensions and sick funds for nurses; the formation and management of convalescent and holiday homes for nurses as well as alms houses for retired nurses; and the organisation of conferences on questions relating to the profession of nursing [2] . It described itself as a union or organisation of nurses for professional objects and campaigned for the establishment of a register of nurses. It wanted the training to last three years with national standards.
Princess Christian was the president from its foundation [2] . The first trustees were : His Grace the Duke of St.Albans and His Grace the Duke of Abercorn [2] . In 1891, it received the prefix "Royal", and received a royal charter in 1892. In a speech Princess Christian made in 1893, she made clear that the association was working towards "improving the education and status of those devoted and self-sacrificing women whose whole lives have been devoted to tending the sick, the suffering, and the dying". In the same speech, she warned about opposition and misrepresentation they had encountered. Although the association was in favour of registration as a means of enhancing and guaranteeing the professional status of trained nurses, its charter with the Privy Council allowed it to maintain a list rather than a formal register of nurses, but as the list had no formal status few nurses joined it, and the campaign for registration continued. [3] The charter altered the constitution, and Mrs Bedford-Fenwick lost her permanent position. One condition of the royal charter was the placing of representatives of medical associations on the Executive Board and especially a large number of general practitioners on the committee entrusted with the registration of nurses. The British Medical Association had not been in favour of the charter. [4]
Alice Ravenhill was the secretary of the association from 1894 to 1897. It set up a nurses' co-operative, the Chartered Nurses Association, in 1896. In 1905 it employed 120 nurses taking 7.5% of their earnings. [5]
The passing of the Midwives Act 1902 encouraged the campaign for registration of nurses. The association helped to set up the Central Committee for the State Registration of Nurses in 1908. [6]
The RBNA gradually went into decline following the Nurses Registration Act 1919; after six failed attempts between 1904 and 1918, the British parliament passed the bill allowing formal nurse registration. [7] In 1925 it had about 5,000 members – around a fifth of the membership of the College of Nursing. [8]
The Royal British Nurses' Association was still in existence as of 2020 [update] , administering a number of very small charities for sick and disabled nurses until they were closed in 2020.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a registered trade union and professional body in the United Kingdom for those in the profession of nursing. It was founded in 1916 as the College of Nursing, receiving its royal charter in 1928. Queen Elizabeth II was the patron until her death in 2022, King Charles III continued the royal connection and became patron in 2024. The majority of members are registered nurses; however student nurses and healthcare assistants are also members. There is also a category of membership, at a reduced cost, for retired people.
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is an academic faculty within King's College London. The faculty is the world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school. Established on 9 July 1860 by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, it was a model for many similar training schools through the UK, Commonwealth and other countries for the latter half of the 19th century. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives. It also carries out nursing research, continuing professional development and postgraduate programmes. The Faculty forms part of the Waterloo campus on the South Bank of the River Thames and is now one of the largest faculties in the university.
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.
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.
Eva Charlotte Ellis Luckes was matron of the London Hospital from 1880 to 1919.
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.
Margaret Rachel Huxley (1854–1940) was an English nurse who introduced structured, scientific nursing training in Ireland. Her initiatives led to the establishment of the first nursing school in Dublin. She was involved in numerous organisations promoting professionalism in nursing and campaigning for nurse registration throughout the British Isles.
The Fever Nurses Association was established in London in 1908.
Winifred Emily Hector FRCN was an English nurse and textbook author. She played a significant part in introducing modern curriculum and teaching methods to British nursing education.
The General Nursing Council for England and Wales was established by the Nurses Registration Act 1919 to administer the register of nurses. It was responsible for deciding the rules for admission to the register.
Voluntary hospitals were created from the eighteenth century in England. In America, Ireland, and Australia, voluntary hospitals were established later. They can be distinguished from municipal hospitals, which were publicly owned, and private hospitals, which were run commercially. They were initially financed by public subscription. A voluntary hospital may also be a charitable hospital.
The Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association was created in 1879 to organise training and act as an employment agency for nurses in Poor law infirmaries and workhouses.
The Nurses Registration Act 1919 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Matrons' Council for Great Britain and Ireland was established in 1894 during the campaign for the registration of nurses and was disbanded c.1955.
Workhouse infirmaries were established in the nineteenth century in England. They developed from the Workhouse and were run under the Poor law regime.
Frances Goodall CBE was a British nurse who was General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing and a founder of what became the Colostomy Association.
The Society of Registered Male Nurses was a British professional body for male nurses founded in 1937 with six members including Mr Edward J. Glavin. Prior to the Society there were a number of small agencies that placed trained male nurses, often from the co-operative movement such as the Male Nurses (Temperance) Co-operation. Male nurses also joined unions, such as the National Asylum Workers' Union, but the professional nursing organisations in the United Kingdom were exclusively female.
Henry Betterton, 1st Baron Rushcliffe or Rushcliffe, as he was now known, was appointed by Ernest Brown the minister of health to chair the Nurses Salaries Committee which was established in October 1941. It was the first official body to fix salary scales and conditions for nursing in England.