History of nursing in the United Kingdom
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.
The designation 'sister' occurred consequent to 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).
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 Kings College, Charing Cross and University College Hospitals until close to the end of the century.
In the Crimean War against Russia, Nightingale was appointed by Sir Sidney Herbert to oversee the introduction of female nurses into the military hospitals in Turkey.
Other women involved in nursing in the Crimea were Betsi Cadwaladr and Mary Seacole When Nightingale returned from the Crimean War in August 1856, she hid herself away from the public's attention.
When state registration of the medical profession had begun in 1858, many observers pointed to the need for a similar system for nursing.
By the 1880s, the Hospitals Association (an early version of the NHS Confederation) was committed to the principle of registration for nurses.
At this the Matrons' Committee split between one group which supported the Hospitals Association and another faction, led by Ethel Gordon Fenwick, which opposed the new register and sought to align themselves more closely with the medical profession.
Whereas that maintained by the Hospitals Association was purely an administrative list, the register established by the BNA had a more explicit public protection remit.
Princess Helena, the daughter of Queen Victoria, played a central role in sponsoring and legitimizing the profession.
She was a strong supporter of nurse registration, an issue that was opposed by both Florence Nightingale, Eva Luckes and leading public figures.
In accordance with rank, Helena agreed to resign in Alexandra's favour, and she retained presidency of the Army Nursing Reserve.
[11][12] 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.
[14] Her highly publicised exposure of the abysmal care afforded sick and wounded soldiers energized reformers.
[18] The pressure for state registration grew throughout the 1890s but was undermined by disagreements within the profession over the desired form and purpose of the regulatory system.
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.
[16] Grace McDougall (1887–1963) was the eneretic commandant of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), which had formed in 1907 as an auxiliary to the home guard in Britain.
In 1936 the London County Council introduced a standard 54 hour week for nurses and in 1938 moved to a 96-hour fortnight.
In 1937 the Earl of Athlone chaired a committee of inquiry into the arrangements for "recruitment, training and registration and terms and conditions of service" for nurses.
It recommended higher pay, a 96-hour fortnight and four weeks holiday a year, and the removal of unreasonable restrictions on nurses life.
It advocated more domestic staff and that grants should be made from public funds to Voluntary hospitals to pay for these improvements.
The Ministry of Health guaranteed a salary of £40 to nursing students in training, about double what voluntary hospitals were paying before the war.
[36] The availability of sterile supplies brings an end to washing and sterilisation of equipment such as dressings and syringes.
[39] The Briggs Parliamentary Report was published in 1972 andh reviewed the role of nurses and midwives in hospitals and in community care across the United Kingdom.
It made recommendations on education, training, and professional regulation Briggs also recommended the replacement of the existing regulatory structure (involving nine separate bodies across the United Kingdom) with a unified central council and separate boards in each of the four countries with specific responsibility for education.
Six years of debate followed before the modified Briggs proposals formed the basis of the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1979.
Some Polytechnics and Universities started to offer Degrees in Nursing, which combined higher level study and practical clinical ward based training.
Its core functions were to maintain a register of UK nurses, midwives and health visitors, provide guidance to registrants, and handle professional misconduct complaints.
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).
