Susan McGann, Anne Crowther and Rona Dougall, A History of the Royal College of Nursing 1916-90
A Voice for Nurses
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12208148 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rosemary Wall (0000-0002-1949-0965, King's College London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 491-492 |
| Publication date | 2011-06-09 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social History of Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-631X • E-ISSN: 1477-4666 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/shm/hkr058 |
| OpenAlex | W2331334660 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
A Voice for Nurses is institutional history par excellence, contextualised within the histories of gender, profession and labour. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) had two key aims—formulating educational policy and addressing conditions in the workplace. The book's focus on profession and labour is as much on education and divisions in the status of nursing roles as on unionism. The gender focus begins with women, with men only accepted into the College from the 1960s, but included in the story from the post-Second World War. The administrative history of the College, biographies of key staff and photographs from the RCN archive permeate this broader history of British twentieth-century nursing. The first chapter examines the foundation of the RCN, including the divided opinions and strategies of nursing organisations and nursing leaders; the desire to provide continuing education emulating royal medical colleges; regional expansion; and elitism. The second chapter documents the development of the headquarters and communications; decisions about royal patronage; branches and sections; specialist training courses; campaigns for better working terms and conditions; the role of the Ministry of Health; public health, industrial nursing and health visiting; private nursing; and the nursing shortage. Chapter 3 looks at staffing and education policy, for example a two-tier nurse training scheme in Essex, a trend which the College resisted; rival organisations and trade unions working for better conditions for nurses; unofficial and official inquiries; and the College and the Second World War, from recruitment and the volunteering of its members in large bomb shelters to the value of industrial nursing. However, the College and nursing in general had to struggle to influence wartime policy and ideas for a National Health Service (NHS)
Excellence · Nurse education · Political science · Sociology · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History of Science and Medicine · Medicine · Nursing · Law
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |