nightingale and the nursing leaders she mentored · st bartholomew’s, london maria machin, after...
TRANSCRIPT
Commonwealth Nurses and
Midwives Conference,
March 12-13, 2016, London
Nightingale and the Nursing Leaders She Mentored
Lynn McDonald, PhD, LLD (hon.)
director, Collected Works of Florence
Nightingale (2001-12, 16 vols)
former MP, author, Non-smokers’ Health Act,
1988, Canada’s pioneering law to provide
smoke-free work and public places, 1988
Climate change activist
16 volumes
Collected Works of
Florence
Nightingale
the editor with
the volumes
all available also
as ebooks
the documents
are digitized on
a website
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Fame from the Crimean War 1854-56
Major founder of modern nursing
Social scientist, first woman Fellow of the
Royal Statistical Society
Pioneer of evidence-based health care
Pioneer environmental health theorist (from
the lessons of the Crimean War)
Hospital conditions in her day
Death rates per admissions, at London
teaching hospitals were around 10%, when
her nursing school opened in 1860
Death rates in the Crimean War hospitals
rose to about 40% in the worst months of the
war (early 1855)
The background to her work
The Nightingale School
At St Thomas’ Hospital, London
Opened 1860, secular, for pupils of any faith
or none at all (Nightingale a woman of faith,
Christian, and many nurses were – but the
school open to all)
The base for her mentoring, pupils at end of
year, and visitors from other countries
Vol. 12 in CWFN
series, with letters
to matron and nurses
at the “N School”
from its beginning
Picture of FN at
Claydon House,
Bucks, on an
annual outing
with the tutor, Mary
Crossland, and Sir
Harry Verney, chair
of the Nightingale
Fund Council, which
paid for the school
Method of Mentoring
First meeting at end of year’s training --
occasional meetings after, letter exchanges,
letters of reference for jobs
Visible support on starting matron’s position
– Nightingale sent flowers by commissionaire
Concerted support when under investigation
Some examples, out of a large number……..
Matrons at British Hospitals
Angelique-Lucille Pringle, matron at the
Royal Edinburgh Infirmary, later at St T., from
Edinburgh teams to other Scottish hospitals
Alice Fisher, matron at Addenbrooke’s,
Birmingham, Radcliffe Infirmary and Blockley
Hospital, Philadelphia
Jane Styring: to Montreal General, Bart’s,
Marylebone Workhouse, matron, St Mary’s
Visitors from Other Countries
Nightingale met with nurses/matrons from
other countries for short-term stays at St
Thomas’ Hospital
Arranged for them to spend time at leading
hospitals, e.g., Edinburgh Royal Infirmary,
Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary, Highgate, St
Marylebone
St Bartholomew’s, London
Maria Machin, after Montreal General,
matron at St Bartholomew’s, London (hostile
environment to trained nursing)
An ancient hospital, like St Thomas’, top
medical staff, e.g. Sir James Paget
But slow to employ trained nurses and to
train nurses
Matrons at other UK Hospitals
Mary Juliana Pyne, Westminster
Flora Masson, Radcliffe Infirmary, later at the
Homerton Fever Hospital,
Rachel Williams, after assistant at Edinburgh
R.I., matron at St Mary’s, Paddington
Frances E. Spencer, matron at both
Edinburgh and St Thomas’ (after Pringle)
Helen Blower, after Mtl, Royal Southern, Liv.
Workhouse Infirmaries
Agnes Jones, Liverpool Workhouse
Infirmary, died on the job in 1868
Mary Cadbury, after Highgate and Liverpool,
matron at Sheffield and Queen’s Hospital,
Birmingham
Amelia P. de Laney, St Marylebone and
Birmingham
Izalina Huguenin, matron Liverpool 1880-
District Nursing (Home Visiting)
Florence Lees, later Craven, “invented”
method for home visiting nursing (FN
godmother of a son), supt. Metropolitand and
National Assoc.
Amy Sarah Hughes, supt M&N, Bolton
Workhouse Infirmary, later supt., Queen
Victoria Jubilee nurses and in Australia
Katharine I. Persse, Liverpool
Matrons at Irish Hospitals
Jessie Lennox, Belfast Children’s Hospital
Ellen Notcutt, Royal Hospital, Belfast
Louisa Franks, Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin
Sarah E. Hampson, Rotunda Hosp., Dublin
Susan Beresford, Sir Patrick Duns Hosp.
Helen Shuter, City of Dublin Hosp.
Military Nurses
Margaret Augusta Fellowes, Transvaal and
Egyptian campaigns, matron in WW I
hospital, London
Sybil Airy, supt York County Hosp, Egyptian
campaign, matron Royal Victoria Hospital,
Bournemouth
Anne E. Caulfield, Egypt campaign, supt.
Herbert Hospital, Woolwich
Helen C. Norman, Egypt, matron QAIMNS
Matrons at Chronic-care Hospitals
Ulrike N. Linicke, after Irish hospitals, matron
at Royal Hosp. for Incurables, Putney
Amelia de Laney, after workhouse
appointments, matron at Epileptic Home
Matrons Visiting at St Thomas’
From the U.S.: Linda Richards (matron at
numerous hospitals, later in Japan)
Isabel Hampton, to Johns Hopkins Univ.
Hospital, author of major nursing textbook
From Canada: Charlotte MacLeod, after
Waltham Hospital, Boston, matro
n, Victorian Order of Nurses, Ottawa; Louise
Darche (supt Blackwell’s Island, New York)
Elizabeth R. Scovil, supt. In New York
European
From Germany: Charlotte Helmsdorfer and
Frl von Cornberg
From Sweden: Emmy Rappe and Alfhild
Ehrenborg
From Finland: Ellen Ekblom, Sophie
Mannerheim
Vol. 13 in
CWFN series
covers her work
mentoring nurses
in U.K. hospitals
and around the
world, with bios
of nursing leaders
typically ignored
In UK nursing
histories
Troubled Matrons
Styring: “father failed, mother dead,
grandmother insane”
De Laney, broken health when at the
Epileptic Home; when at Birmingham, it was
the “best managed workhouse in the
kingdom, partly because of Miss de Laney.”
For stressed-out matrons, Nightingale
organized time off, rest, a holiday, gifts
Matrons under Investigation
Lucy Osburn, Sydney Hospital, Royal
Commission investigation (Windeyer letter)
Eva Luckes, London Hospital, a House of
Lords Select Committee
Flora Masson, Radcliffe Infirmary, complaint
of staff to administration – forced out from
prejudice and ignorance
Rachel Williams, St Mary’s, Paddington
Williams, at St Mary’s, Paddington
Rachel Williams eventually forced out, after a
lengthy investigation and much intervention
by Nightingale, dispute over salary
FN recruited a senior doctor, Sieveking, to
support and a governor, Lord Carlingford, but
governors decided she had been dishonest;
FN got a delay to permit her to resign instead
of being dismissed
New Position for Williams
Williams volunteered for the Egypt Campaign
of 1885, became superintendent in Cairo
Nightingale arranged for new uniforms, paid
for from Nightingale Fund, showing officer
status (scarlet tippets and cap)
Great send-off at St Mary’s: Williams cheered
as she left! On her return got a letter in the
Times published on her experience
Mentoring through Life
Nurses and matrons visited Nightingale and
wrote her until her advanced old age
Massive amounts of material available,
especially of letters BY nurses and matrons
TO Nightingale (she kept them)
Many volumes of material missing – attic?
basement somewhere? Wardroper, Vincent
Books, articles, theses to be written! Sources
on my website, digitized
Where is Nightingale now?
Statue at Glasgow Royal
Infirmary, storage area,
at beginning of the
Collected Works project
with traffic cone
and pop bottle
Statue moved to
Front lobby of Glasgow
Royal Infirmary, next
To bronze relief of
Lord Lister, who
pioneered antiseptic
surgery at that hospital