Celebrating 13 decades of nurse education 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Welcome to the 125 Years of Nurse Education in Oxford celebration booklet ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank the following This booklet details the last 13 decades of nurse people or organisations for their education in Oxford and Swindon. We are grateful help in compiling this booklet: to the people who have taken time to share their experiences of nurse education. DESIGNER ■■ Flora Hands, Carline Creative The training and education of health care professionals has long been a cornerstone of life in Oxford and in AUTHORS the 20th and 21st Centuries Oxford Brookes University ■■ Xante Cummings has played its own vital role in working with local ■■ Annie Thompson-Lynch partners to provide professional healthcare education. ■■ Dr Liz Westcott Nurse training in Oxford can trace its beginnings back to 1782. Then a non-regulated training, the early THE RADCLIFFE GUILD OF NURSES – beginnings of a formal nurse education, started in 1891 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES FROM: at the Radcliffe Infirmary on Woodstock Road. ■■ Rita Bayley The records, many of which we have accessed to write ■■ Theresa Bentley this booklet, provide a fascinating history. Between ■■ Sue Bradshaw 1921 and 1991, 7948 nurses’ names were recorded. ■ Nurse training continued at the Radcliffe Infirmary and ■ Nicky Brennan in 1979 the John Radcliffe 2 site was opened and the ■■ Anne Carter ‘The School of Nursing’ transferred to this new site. ■■ Mary Campbell In the mid 1980s Malcolm Ross, then Chief Nursing ■■ Mary Dickman Officer in Oxford, Pam Jones the Head of Nursing ■■ June Fisher Education in Oxford entered into discussions with ■■ Eileen Forbes the then Vice Chancellor, Clive Booth and senior staff ■ at Oxford Polytechnic. In 1989 this resulted with the ■ Isobel Gilles traditional RGN training being replaced by a 4-year ■■ Anne Green degree in nursing and the School of Health Care came ■■ Ann Pollard into existence at the Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford ■■ Joan Tree Brookes University. In 1999 a campus was opened in Ferndale, Swindon and an Adult Nursing programme ■■ Pat Wilson was introduced, with Operating Department Practice ■■ Joan Winch following shortly after. ■■ Viv Wightman In 2004 we were brought together from our 12 sites OTHER CONTRIBUTORS across Oxford to the newly acquired Milham Ford Girls ■■ Graham Carter, Editor, Swindon Heritage School in Marston. At last the health and social work programmes were all on a site together. Health Care ■■ Dr Ann Ewens, Oxford Brookes University and Social Work joined with Biological and Medical ■■ Rachel Skittrall, Oxford Brookes University Sciences and Psychology in 2011 to become The ■■ Robyn Thompson-Vango, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Oxford Brookes University We hope you enjoy reading about our nursing history ■■ Jeffrey Wright, The Oxford Health Archive and we look forward to seeing you at the many events being organised during the year, please see page 38 for our celebration calendar. COVER PICTURES CLOCKWISE: Drawing by Coen Littleford, age 8; 1960s nurse dining room; Student nurse, Oxford Brookes University; 1930s nurse sitting room; Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

2 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY Contents

Introduction, Professor June Girvin 4 1869-99 6 1900-09 8 1910-19 10 1920-29 12 Little people, big talent 14 1930-39 16 1940-49 18 Oxford nurses work across the globe 21 1950-59 22 1960-69 24 1970-79 26 1980-89 28 Swindon’s medical heritage 30 1990-99 32 2000-16 34 Back in the day 36 Programme of events 38 Sources 39

www.brookes.ac.uk | 3 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD Celebrating 125 Years of Nurse Education in Oxford

The anniversary of 125 years conditions and of nurse education Oxford facilitating patients and carers through is a fantastic opportunity to the increasing celebrate everything that was, complexity of is, and will be, nursing. services. A digital expert, able to As the leader of a Faculty of Health and Life monitor and Sciences that educates future nurses as well as support remotely, other health care professionals and biological engaging with scientists the chance to recall our past, reflect higher education for other professionals and on our present and project our future in nurse colleagues and developing clinical academic education couldn’t be more appropriate. roles that push the boundaries of nursing care through research and innovation. Caring in highly Nursing is one of those professions that everyone technical and/or community scenarios and thinks they know about and the fondness that the bringing compassion and warmth to both. general population have for nurses is recognised and appreciated. Since the start of nurse education It is already a very challenging health care world for in Oxford 125 years ago people have expected nurses and will continue to be challenging, exciting warmth, compassion, kindness and a reassurance and rewarding in equal measure. Educating nurses of safety. These remain key attributes of today’s is the best way to ensure the resilience that retains nurses and will be key attributes into the future. kindness and compassion, enhance the knowledge What has changed almost unimaginably in that base that produces flexibility, competence and 125 years is the scope of a nurse’s practice. safety, and develop the confidence that leads to excellent clinical judgment and accountability. From fetching and carrying, following Dr’s orders, and interminable cleaning (which I remember The world-class health care services and the as late as the 1970s) today’s nurses are more extraordinary academic environment that Oxford likely to be assessing patients and instigating offers provides our student nurses with a unique care and treatment, prescribing medication, learning experience that prepares them to face facilitating a multi-disciplinary – and often that challenging, exciting and rewarding future multiagency – team, educating patients and with skill and knowledge, underpinned, as carers, supervising students, and undertaking always, by kindness, compassion and warmth. their own research into areas of clinical need. All It is my very great privilege to be a part of the past, combined with those key attributes of warmth, present and future of nursing education in Oxford. compassion, kindness, efficiency and safety.

The future will bring even more changes to that PROFESSOR JUNE GIRVIN scope of practice – the nurse as independent PRO VICE CHANCELLOR AND DEAN, consultant, gateway to services, deliverer of complex FACULTY HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES, care, collaborator with expert patients co-producing OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY care packages with those who have long-term

4 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY Professor Viv Bennett CBE CHIEF NURSE, PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND

I trained as a nurse and health visitor at the earlier versions of Oxford Brookes (Oxford School of Nursing and Oxford Polytechnic) and I have always been proud to say ‘I trained in Oxford’. In Oxford I learned the science and art of nursing and public health nursing - in part from my lecturers and books (in those days books!) and in huge part from patients, families and colleagues. I remember clearly as a student nursing Mr B an elderly ‘gentleman’ in every sense of the word who taught me about the importance of ‘know my story-know me’ and of maintaining the dignity of a dignified Professor Viv Bennett CBE as a student nurse man. Of two babies, the birth of one and death of the other, who showed me the privilege of nursing I remember clearly as a at the best of times and the worst of times for families. A surgeon who gave me confidence and student nursing Mr B an helped me be competent in theatre, and a family with two children with disabilities and extreme elderly ‘gentleman’ in social disadvantage who showed me the courage every sense of the word that families show in adversity and taught me to be a much better health visitor. who taught me about the In Oxford I first became interested in public importance of ‘know my health and children’s services which has lasted throughout my career. story-know me’

Student nurses, 1970s

www.brookes.ac.uk | 5 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1861-65 1863 American Civil War First section of the London between the Union and Underground opens 1860-99 seceding Confederacy 1877 1879 1880-81 1881 Thomas Edison invents the Thomas Edison tests his The First Boer War First electrical power plant and phonograph first light bulb. grid in Godalming, Britain

OXFORD’S FIRST HOSPITAL Nursing is one of the oldest Oxford’s first hospital, the Radcliffe Infirmary, had opened occupations associated with in 1770, but for much of the 100 years that followed it was beset by problems, not least of which was the lack of will to care of the sick. It was first develop any form of meaningful training for nurses. Though mentioned, as a recognisable there was some bedside teaching for doctors there was role, during the height of the nothing for nurses. Even as late as the 1870s the house surgeon described the nurses as ‘kind, intelligent, simple Roman Empire, around 300 A.D. women of the superior servant class, without any pretension to being ladies’. This was a period when one woman was in For many centuries that charge of each ward and doing all the nursing and cleaning, followed however, though including fetching the coal and lighting the fire. At night one both men and women were nurse, untrained, looked after the whole hospital. employed in a wide diversity 1857 of nursing situations, For nurses at this time hours were undoubtedly very long little is known about their Louis Pasteur and pay and conditions poor. It is also likely that few taking daily work, learning or identifies the role of nurse, a role synonymous with that of servant, experience. germs as could read or write. There was an acknowledgment by the cause of Governors of the Radcliffe Infirmary, as early at 1866 that ‘it By the 1800s this began disease is desirable that a system for training nurses be adopted’. to change, as advances A Committee was even set up to draw up regulations for in medicine generated an such training but opposition from the medical faculty, who increasing recognition of thought that trained nurses might usurp medical students the role of the nurse and the need for a better informed and possibly even themselves, meant that the idea did and disciplined nursing workforce. The first emergence not translate into action. The need for trained nurses was of nurse training, as we would recognise it today, came nevertheless becoming increasingly evident and by 1883 in 1836 at the Deaconess Institute at Kaiserworth in ‘lady probationers’ were being accepted for training, though Germany. This was an important influence on Florence in reality there was little formal training available to them. Nightingale OM, RRC (pictured), who, following her Their average age tended to be high; in 1899 it was 27years. experiences in the They would come on trial basis for a month and if considered Crimea war of the suitable for training would be required to sign up to stay for 1850s, went on to 12 months; if they showed outstanding ability they might be not only revolutionise invited to stay for a second year. Though the matrons of the nursing by opening time Miss Masson and her successor, Miss Watt, pressed for the first Nightingale an extension of the training to three years, this did not happen nursing school in until the twentieth century. London in 1860, but also to influence By the end of the nineteenth century, the number of nursing hospital design, on the staff at the Infirmary had risen to about fifty, with a sister and grounds that “the very one or two assistant nurses (who had some training) for each first requirement in a ward and some twenty-five probationers who moved from hospital is that it should ward to ward. The hours were still long, holidays confined to 2 do the sick no harm”. weeks; there is no mention of ‘days off’, though it is likely that discretionary days were given. It was a hard education...

“The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm”.

Florence Nightingale OM, RRC, 1859

6 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1865 1869 Lewis Carroll publishes Dmitri Mendeleev Alice’s Adventures in created the Periodic Wonderland table

1888 1889 Jack the Ripper murders Eiffel Tower is Dr Liz occur in Whitechapel, inaugurated in Paris Westcott London DEPARTMENT HEAD NURSING, OXFORD BROOKES

I started my career as a nurse on a sunny, cold crisp day in October 1978 at the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1978. I was excited and anxious about what 1867 the future would hold but 37 years later I couldn’t Joseph Lister develops the have made a better choice of career and have use of antiseptic surgical loved my journey as a nurse, nurse educator methods and publishes and nurse leader. I have worked in neurology Antiseptic Principle of the and neurosurgery as a staff nurse, then ward Practice of Surgery sister and senior nurse and met and cared for wonderful patients, relatives and staff. I have 1879 always loved teaching and was privileged to be First vaccine developed appointed in 1989 as one of the first Lecturer for cholera Practitioners in the country. I moved to Oxford 1881 Brookes University as a senior lecturer in 1998 and my current role is Department Head of Nursing. First vaccine developed for anthrax by Louis Pasteur The essence of nursing will always be the same; to care for people when they are in most need and 1882 to be there to offer care, support and education. Koch discovers the Technology has changed immeasurably and TB bacillus people have more access now to information about their conditions than ever before but nurses are still there to support, reassure, guide people lead inter professional teams to get the best health outcomes possible. MARY SEACOLE I have always loved sharing knowledge with nurses Florence Nightingale and my Department Head role is a great way to was not the only pioneer to make her influence the next mark on the care and generation of nurses well-being of patients and to ensure they during the Crimea share the same values war. Mary Seacole’s that nurses have 1890 reputation rivalled that Emil von Behring always held. We are of Florence Nightingale. discovers Though not a nurse in on the brink of one of antitoxins and the formal sense, she the biggest changes in develops tetanus provided invaluable nurse education with and diphtheria convalescence the introduction of vaccines and care to soldiers behind the Crimea lines by student loans and it’s establishing the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide 1895 an exciting time to be ‘a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and Wilhelm Conrad planning for the future. convalescent officers’. Known as ‘Mother Seacole’ Roentgen she also visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, discovers X rays to nurse the wounded.

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1900s 1901 L. Frank Baum publishes Queen Victoria dies. 1900-09 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Edward VII becomes king

NURSING RECOGNISED AS As the 19th century closed A PROFESSION and the 20th progressed, five For many entering the 20th century however, change was still a long way off. Of Britain’s population of 36 million, 1.5 words would characterise million were servants; more than worked on the land or in the lived experience of the factories. Working conditions were generally very poor and population; Urbanization, hours long; it was not uncommon for children to be working at 12 years old. Basic needs were often not met and many New Technologies, Education, inner city areas experienced appalling conditions; malnutrition Mass Culture, Consumerism. among poor children was endemic. Although improvements had occurred in medicine and surgery, practices could still Social roles would also be brutal and primitive. For every disease on the wane - such expand as fundamental as smallpox and cholera - another was on the rise, including attitudes towards children, alcoholism and venereal diseases. education, gender roles, and 1901 Achieving recognition for nursing as a profession, though social status shifted. Karl Landsteiner vigorously pursued by some, was still a struggle and progress introduces was slow. Success would not be achieved until much later in the system to the century and then only as part of a wider effort to improve classify blood the legal, professional and economic status of women in into A, B, AB, and O groups general. At the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1900, for its twenty five probationers, life was arduous and restricted. Board and lodging had to be paid for; there was no salary in the first year.

Sisters of the Radcliffe Infirmary, 1900s

8 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1903 1903 Women’s Social and Political The Wright brothers Union is formed to campaign fly the first powered, for women’s suffrage heavier-than-air plane

Meals were adequate but uninteresting with shepherd’s pie and milk puddings being staple fare; fruit and salads Paul Ong rarely appeared on the menu. Working hours started with breakfast at 06.30 and ended with supper at 20.30 SENIOR LECTURER, followed by bed and lights out at 22.00. OXFORD BROOKES The organisation of work on the wards was strictly hierarchical and for first year probationers, their place was for I completed my nurse training in 1993 at Charing the most part ‘under the sluice sink’. They could also expect Cross Hospital in London. This left me with very to be given the most unattractive jobs by anyone senior to fond memories, not least because this is where them. Each trained nurse and probationer had their allocated I met my wife! It also exposed me to a range of tasks and had to keep strictly to them. Conduct was diverse cultural experiences which have proved expected to be exemplary, diligent, attentive and obedient. invaluable over the course of my nursing career. REWARDING SUCCESS My first post was at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Successful probationers did receive an award at the end of Oxford within the Neurosurgical Unit which proved their first year, but only if a nurse showed outstanding ability would she be invited to stay for a second year. If this were exciting, challenging and very rewarding, being at offered she would receive ten pounds and compensation the forefront of major advances in neurosurgical (usually money, received for services given) and a more procedures and interventions around subarachnoid complete award at the end of her training. Matrons Miss haemorrhage, embolisations and epilepsy. I Masson and her successor, Miss Watt, pressed for the then took up a post in gastrointestinal surgery abolition of this ‘premium system’ as it was known and for the extension of the training period to three years. It was not until where my interest in Inflammatory Bowel Disease 1909 that it finally ceased and salaries were paid to nurses in developed. I was then seconded to a teaching post training; five pounds in their first year, ten in their second. at Oxford Brookes University which translated into The rules at the Radcliffe, set up in the 19th century, a lecturer and then senior lecturer post. During remained in place into the early twentieth century... “You the early part of my teaching career I completed shall kindly treat the patients under your care, as well as an MSc in Higher Professional Education and keeping them sweet and clean in their persons, bedding alongside this I have been heavily involved in and every other respect, as in giving them their meat and the development of a series of Clinical Pocket drink in a comfortable manner...and you are expected Reference books for Nurses and we are about to show courtesy and politeness to all the friends of the patients and other visitors to the ward.” Gossip and loud to publish our third edition this year. Most of conversation in corridors, wards and kitchens, was described my teaching interests at Brookes have revolved as ‘undesirable’; punctuality was praised as a major virtue, around clinical physiology and pathophysiology. and the nurse was urged to “take daily outdoor exercise as a means of maintaining good health”. I feel very privileged to have carried out all of my clinical nursing in Oxford. I was particularly inspired It was still hard education, but in the first decade of the 20th century, a potentially healthy one of high ideals! by the Primary Nursing Model pioneered in Oxford which helped me develop the strong sense of patent-centred care and the importance of the “You shall kindly treat the therapeutic relationship as a basis for high quality patients under your care, as care. Many of the values and beliefs I developed during my early years of clinical practice remain with well as keeping them sweet and me today and still guide me in my professional role clean in their persons, bedding At Brookes I have enjoyed a great spirit of camaraderie. What I value most as a senior lecturer and every other respect, as is having the freedom to be innovative, for example in giving them their meat incorporating technological advances into teaching as a means to enhance the learner experience. and drink in a comfortable manner...”

Radcliffe Infirmary rules

www.brookes.ac.uk | 9 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1910 1912 George V becomes king End of the Chinese Empire; Republic of China 1910-19 established

TRAINING AT THE RADCLIFFE This period started to change INFIRMARY how nurses were being trained During the First World War the 3rd Southern General Hospital was set up at the Examination Schools and Somerville and improve the perception of College, with 1,000 beds. The Radcliffe Infirmary was also the value of trained nurses. used as a hospital with 64 beds for injured soldiers, housed in hutted wards, staffed from the Infirmary. When the soldiers In 1916 the College of Nursing (becoming the Royal arrived at the railway station they were taken to various places College of Nursing in 1928) was founded and it has around Oxford that had been set up as hospitals and some now become the largest professional nursing union were admitted to the Radcliffe Infirmary. There were also in the world. marquees erected in the hospital grounds, which were used as wards. In 1917 a standardised curriculum was established by the National League for Nursing Education and Miss Agnes Watt was appointed Matron in 1897 the nurse in 1918 the Sister Tutor training school had a good reputation under her direction section was founded. and she shaped the formal training of nurses. The distinction between fee paying and free place trainees was bought to an In 1919 the Nurse end. During the First World War she asked the injured soldiers Registration Act was 1913 in her hospital to record their thoughts in a book which passed, it had taken Dr. Paul Dudley remains today in the Oxfordshire Health Archive. 30 years to get through White pioneers parliament. This act the use of The injured men came from the UK, France and Belgium. establishes a register for the electro- It took weeks for them to get to the Radcliffe Infirmary from nurses, and sets standards cardiograph the battlefields and many lost their lives on the way as a for training, examinations - ECG result of infection. For example, one man injured on the 24th and registration. of October arrived at the Radcliffe Infirmary on the 11th of November, a journey taking 3 weeks. The soldiers were very grateful for the care they received and they were all relieved to be back in England. One solider recalls an “injury to a nerve in my arm which was required to be treated with electricity… the first time I received the treatment I was conscious of a slight relief when one comes to think that I had not closed my eyes since I was wounded despite liberal doses of morphia. You will have a slight idea of how grateful I was…I will never forget one of the happiest times of my life”. He was a patient for 6 weeks and came from the Sherwood Foresters Regiment. Another soldier said “if I kept writing until doomsday… I should not be able to praise both hospital, the Matron and nurses too highly…you get well so quick with the care taken of you” Another said “ I was ignorant of what the results of science, careful nursing and patience could do for me”

EDITH CAVELL Radcliffe Infirmary nurses with Matron The hospital lost staff during Miss Agnes Watt, 1910 the First World War who joined up to serve in the armed forces. In one of the most famous events of that conflict, Edith Cavell, a London trained nurse, was executed in Belgium in 1915 for treason after aiding the escape of up to 200 Allied soldiers to the Netherlands. Pleas for clemency stressed that she had nursed men from both sides of the conflict.

10 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1914-18 1917 First World War Russian Revolution ends the Russian Empire

INFLUENZA PANDEMIC Between January 1918 and December 1920 there was Kate Boulter also an influenza pandemic and 500 million people across NURSING DEGREE the world lost their lives. This was 3-5% of the world’s GRADUATE, OXFORD population. It predominantly affected previously healthy BROOKES young adults. To maintain morale, wartime censors minimised the early reports of the flu pandemic and the My name is Kate Boulter and I graduated with a mortality rates. However, the media could report on the nursing degree from Oxford Brookes in 2001. Since situation in Spain, so a false impression was given that Spain then my career has taken many turns beginning with was especially badly hit and as a result it became known as my first position as a staff nurse on the Renal Ward at Spanish flu. the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. After a few months at the Churchill I moved to the United States where I worked on the Solid Organ Transplant Unit at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. I stayed there for about 7 years and during that time worked as a staff nurse, lead nurse and case manager. After that I worked at the University of Nebraska College of Nursing managing a mobile nursing unit and took nursing students into low-income communities to provide health screenings. I really missed being a bedside nurse so after 2 years returned to a general medical surgical floor as a staff nurse but soon became a lead nurse and then the clinical educator. In addition to all that, and after working at Nebraska Medicine for about 2 years a new unit opened -The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. This is a negative pressure unit with 5 rooms, 10 beds and was the largest of only 3 units like it in the United States. It was Exterior of a children’s ward designed to care for patients with highly infectious diseases (HID) like Ebola Virus. The staff employed on this unit work in primary positions elsewhere in the hospital or the university and only work on the unit if “If I kept writing until there is a patient with a HID. I began as a staff nurse but soon became the lead RN doomsday… I should not be coordinating staff training, developing protocols, holding staff meetings and many other responsibilities in addition able to praise both hospital, to what I was doing in my primary positions. In 2014 we received our first patient; a medical the Matron and nurses too missionary evacuated from Liberia with Ebola Virus. Witnessing our first patient recover from a deadly highly…you get well so quick disease was one of the most rewarding experiences in my career and so was seeing the staff work together with the care taken of you” as team to provide care for our patients. I’m extremely proud of them. First World War soldier I was promoted to the Nurse Manager for the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and in addition to managing the unit am currently traveling to conferences throughout the United States to talk about our experience. I’m also part of a team of amazing professionals that will teach others how to do what we did in Nebraska. The team and I have received many accolades and awards, most recently I was awarded the ‘Positive Image of Nursing’ award by the Nebraska Nurses Association and a distinguished service award from the Nebraska Infection Control Network. My daughter has decided to follow my career path and graduated from Clarkson College in May. On her pinning day she chose me to ‘pin her’ and I proudly wore my Oxford Brookes pin for the occasion.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 11 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1920 1921 Bubonic Plague in India ‘Chanel No. 5’ perfume is 1920-29 created by Coco Chanel

NURSE TRAINING BEGINS AT MANOR HOUSE During the 1920s nurse Nurses who were starting their training were called training became increasingly probationers and wore mauve uniforms; they started at Manor House in Headington where they had lectures and practical standardised and following nursing demonstrations on a dummy before going onto the Nurses Act 1919, the the wards at the Radcliffe Infirmary. They were issued with ‘charts’ to record the nursing skills they had been taught and General Nursing Council (GNC) practiced. As a junior nurse they had to undertake cleaning was the body established to of the wards and there was an inspection of dusters called administer and monitor nurses. the ‘rag parade’. On successful completion of the first year a black belt was awarded, and cuffs were worn on the sleeves. It kept the register of trained nurses from 1921 until Once nurses were working on the wards all additional lectures 1973, and produced an annual register of all trained were undertaken in the nurses’ off duty time. The duty time nurses. In 1921 the Radcliffe Infirmary Nursing was 8am till 9pm with 2.5-3 hours off per day and one day Committee Report stated that there were 54 Sisters off a fortnight. The nurses were given 2 weeks annual leave a and Nurses in the hospital, 40 were probationers and year and night duty was in blocks of 3 months or longer. the report estimated that 80 were required. It was From 1924 at the end of the training period medals were recommended that 18 was the age at which training awarded for the best students. They were gold, silver and could start, so that girls could be attracted from school. bronze medals, but with the formation of the Radcliffe Guild of The GNC recommended starting a ‘preliminary school’ Nurses in 1925 it was decided to use the bronze medal as the to teach the basics outside of the hospital, a course hospital badge. All nurses who successfully completed their lasting 9 weeks, and to have 2 intakes per year. training were given a bronze badge. The first gold medal was Miss Bigger (who was trained at St Thomas’s and was awarded to Lucy Ottley in 1924. said to have swept into the Radcliffe Infirmary like a north east wind) was then appointed Matron at the THE RADCLIFFE GUILD OF NURSES Radcliffe Infirmary in 1921. She laid the foundations of The Radcliffe Guild of Nurses was proposed in 1924 and the School of Nursing. She was an able organiser, strict formed in 1925 with 77 names on the register and a shilling disciplinarian, organised the curriculum and managed it subscription. The aim being to unite all those who had trained in line with the new national nurse education standards, at the Radcliffe Infirmary and now Oxford Brookes University; as laid down by the GNC. The Radcliffe Infirmary annual reunions were established and continue to this day. wished to become an approved institution for the The Guild produces an annual magazine to keep members training of nurses. It achieved this ambition in 1922 in touch. The Guild also provides welfare assistance for when Miss West Watson became the first Sister Tutor. members and bursaries for pre and post graduate nurses, who trained in Oxford, through its charity - The Anne Harrold Radcliffe Guild of Nurses Charitable Trust.

1921 Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets 1923 First vaccine developed for diphtheria. 1926 for whooping cough and 1927 for tuberculosis and tetanus Nurses sitting room, 1920s 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

12 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1924 1929 Frozen food is introduced Wall Street crash of 1929 by Clarence Birdseye in the and the beginning of the USA Great Depression

All nurses ‘lived in’ a nurses home and Matron was in ‘loco Richard Adu parentis’ taking the place of Gyamfi 1921 parents for nurses who were ADULT NURSING Earle Dickson under the age of consent which STUDENT was then 21. Nurses had Invented the to be in the nurse’s home by Band-Aid 10pm, and their behaviour was Going to Oxford Brookes University to get my Bsc monitored by Matron. There was Adult Nursing qualification was a ‘no-brainer’. Prior a very Christian atmosphere on to choosing Oxford Brookes University, I conducted the wards with daily prayers and my own research about other universities, and chapel was compulsory each evening for those nurses not found that academically and socially, Oxford on duty. Brookes University to be among the very best! All hospitals were voluntary/private organisations at this time. Local people could pay subscriptions in order to use Oxford is a great city with diverse culture and age the hospital if they needed to. The nurses had to undertake groups and I love being a student nurse here. regular stock checks of ward equipment and breakages had Students get support throughout their academic to be paid for. work, placements and even financially. Although The nursing profession was hard physical work with long I am a first year student, my confidence in practise hours and little free time, routine and discipline were strongly is increasing every day. This is because it is a adhered to. The allocation of work was strictly hierarchical duty not just to provide care to clients, but also to and all nurses had their allotted tasks and ward sisters were undertake care with evidence based practice. known not by their names but by the name of their wards.

Ward sisters were known not by their names but by the name of their wards.

Isobel Porter, age 6

www.brookes.ac.uk | 13 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Little people, big talent

Some of the children showing their drawing entries at the drawing competition award ceremonies held at Ferndale Campus, Swindon (left) and Headington Hill Hall, Oxford (right)

The winners of a children’s drawing competition celebrating nursing education were announced at two special award ceremonies held by Oxford Brookes University in Oxford and Swindon on 9th and 10th September 2015. The University’s Department of Nursing organised a drawing competition to mark the start of the celebrations for the anniversary of 125 years of nurse education. Pupils from Oxford primary schools (entries received from St Michael’s CE Aided Primary, St John Fisher Catholic Primary School and New Marston Primary School) and from Ferndale Community Primary School, Swindon were asked to draw what they think a modern-day nurse does. The judging panel, which was made up of academics and administration staff from Oxford Brookes and local NHS Trust representatives picked five winning entries in total across the four schools and four age groups. Representatives from Health Education Thames Valley and the local NHS Trusts were also in attendance at the ceremonies which took place at Headington Hill Hall in Oxford and the University’s Ferndale campus in Swindon.

The winning entries. Each drawing is shown in more detail throughout this booklet – clockwise from top left: Coen Littleford (front cover); Finn Kopp (page 20); Patrycja Wieckowska (page 32 ); Isobel Porter (page 13); Sinead Woodley (page 22)

14 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY Clair THE WINNERS WERE: Merriman ■■ Isobel Porter, age 6, New Marston PRINCIPAL LECTURER Primary School PROFESSIONAL ■■ Finn Kopp, age 8, St Michael’s CE PRACTICE SKILLS Aided Primary (pictured far right) I started my RGN in 1989 at the Royal ■■ Sinead Woodley, age 11, St John Fisher Catholic Primary School Berkshire School of Nursing and Midwifery, and was part the last apprenticeship cohort ■■ Coen Littleford, age 8, Ferndale before Project 2000 was introduced. Community Primary School ■■ Patrycja Wieckowska, age 9, Ferndale I came to Oxford post registration to work in Community Primary School, Swindon the neuroscience unit and undertook all of my post registration courses at Oxford Brookes University, whilst working part time and having a family. However, each time I completed a course the skills and knowledge I had developed enabled me to apply for a promotion. I completed the post experience courses in neuroscience and mentorship and was appointed into a practice education post on the neuroscience unit in Oxford. I have always valued knowledge and seek to constantly improve and this led me to continue to study then gaining a degree in critical care nursing. This then also opened doors to where I wanted to go into education. I was appointed to the post of lecturer in clinical skills at Oxford Brookes University in 1993 and soon after started my Masters in Higher Professional Education. On completion my role was changed to a Faculty wide role where I now lead on clinical skills and simulation based education for all health care programmes in the Faculty. I am also executive member of Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) and leading on nursing and medical joint simulation. “The competition has been a I am now pursuing a career in health related research with research around collaborative fantastic way of kicking off our practice and how it impacts on patient safety, 125 years of nurse education with my PhD looking at ward rounds in Adult Critical Care Unit (ACCU) in order to improve celebrations which we will be patient safety and efficient use of staff time celebrating throughout 2016’’. Who would have thought commencing my neuroscience course as a part time staff nurse Dr Liz Westcott, Head of the Department of Nursing, and mum of two children would have led to Oxford Brookes University, pictured above with this? It has shown me that by determination competition winner, Isobel Porter and hard work you can achieve your goals and improve patient care and nurse education.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 15 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION

1931 1936 Floods in China kill up to Beginning of the Spanish 1930-39 2.5 million people Civil War

The 1930s are remembered as the decade of mass unemployment, but by 1938 it had fallen to 10%.

For those with a job, living standards rose significantly. Slums were cleared to make way for council homes and by 1939, about 27% of the population owned their own home. By 1933 half the households in Britain had a radio. Some previous luxuries became common place. Sales of ice cream boomed in the 1930s and many new kinds of confectionery were introduced such as Areo, Kit Kat, Maltesers, Milky Radcliffe nurses in training, 1936 Bar, Milky Way, Mars Bar, 1937 Penguins, Rolo, Smarties, and Whole Nut. Poverty First vaccine GOOD TRAINING REPUTATION had not disappeared by developed Medicine and surgery had also taken many strides forward. any means, but by 1936 for typhus In 1935, nearly 3000 operations were performed at the just fewer than 4% were Infirmary with a mortality of less than 5%. The Infirmary also living at survival level. saw increases in the number of nurses, trained and in training. The three year course of training was well established and Radcliffe nurses were entering for the Preliminary and Final State examination. The number of entrants to the training school was still small, some 40-50 and high wastage was high, but the hospital had begun to gain a reputation for good training. For junior nurses their experience was still characterised by a good deal of scrubbing, dusting and polishing and attendance at lectures took up part of their daily off-duty period. Lecture notes had to be written up and handed in for correction and marking. Writing up was not popular among those that found it difficult, but it did serve to improve their written patient reports. Salary for first year probationers was £20, with free board and lodging, uniform and laundering. Aprons were starched and starched collars and cuffs were worn by all nurses until the shortage of laundering materials during the war years of 1938-45 brought about their very welcome abandonment. Significantly improved living conditions were provided by a new nurses’ home, built in 1932-33. Two tennis courts also Nurses library, 1930s were available to them. Miss Sparks, Matron, writing in the Guild Magazine observed “Now I should like some kind friend to come forward and give us a swimming bath”. Sadly, that ‘kind friend’ never appeared. Now I should like some kind OXFORD EYE HOSPITAL friend to come forward and Despite difficulties of insufficient funding and staffing, the Oxford Eye Hospital, which had opened in 1886, was also give us a swimming bath. steadily increasing its work and achieving high training standards; lectures on general nursing were being given by Miss Sparks, Matron the matron and on ophthalmology by the house surgeon. The Eye Hospital probationers were mainly girls too young to

16 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1937 1939 Japanese invasion of China Nazi invasion of Poland triggers the beginning of the Second World War Dr Helen enter the school of a general hospital, when at eighteen, Walthall they went on to the Radcliffe Infirmary or to some other PROGRAMME hospital, they found their early training they had had LEAD ADVANCED proved to be of great value. From 1935, for several years, AND SPECIALIST second year nurses from the Radcliffe Infirmary went PRACTICE to the Eye Hospital for two week periods to get some ophthalmic experience. This compliment of trainees was I am the Leader of the Post Graduate Course increased when, in 1938, midwives in training came to Team in Nursing. I feel that the knowledge and get experience in the care of babies with ophthalmia expertise of nursing is essential to ensure optimal neonatorum (neonatal conjunctivitis). patient care and outcomes and develop evidence RISING COSTS based provision. The education of post registration In the 1930s, rising costs were affecting everyone. The nurses is an essential component of this. Radcliffe Guild of Nurses, formed in 1925, increased the Along their life-long learning journey nurses need joining cost to half-a-crown, in 1932. The familiar blue to be equipped with attributes to enable them to book cover had appeared in 1931. The Guild was going question, direct and lead practice. They need to be from strength to strength, a reflection perhaps both of the able to make evidence based decisions to develop diversity of onward career paths and the desire to stay in touch as the stability of the age became more uncertain. themselves, practice and ultimately nursing. A key tool within this is for nurses to be supported By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 in a collaborative environment which facilitates the Radcliffe Infirmary, together with the maternity their learning and is delivered by nurses who are department, Sunnyside and the Osler Pavilion had clinical and educational role models. Therefore, increased to just over 500 beds with a nursing staff of 250, of which about 100 were nurses in training. It it is essential for me as the leader of the team to was still not easy for nurses in training, but conditions develop and nurture these skills and attributes were much improved. Some traditional skills however, to ensure nurses are given every opportunity to remained at a premium. Every trainee had to be able become role models and leaders themselves. to make a many tailed bandage and pad and splint, so In 2015, I was part of the team who won the those who were neat and skilled at sewing were very Brookes People Award for Confidence. much in demand by their less accomplished friends.

Sir William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), and the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth , The Queen Mother) opening the new Radcliffe Maternity Home, 1932

www.brookes.ac.uk | 17 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1944 1945 The Siege of Leningrad ends End of the Second World with Soviet victory after over War 1940-49 a million deaths

THE FIRST DOSE OF PENICILLIN This was the decade of the The first dose of penicillin was given intravenously by a doctor Second World War, the first in 1941, but the first dose of intramuscular penicillin was given by Nurse Muriel Flack (nee Tindle). It was a bright yellow oily clinical use of Penicillin, the first fluid and it had to be warmed before being drawn up into a Accident Service as opposed glass syringe, the syringe was boiled by the nurse before use to sterilise it and nurses had to wear gowns and masks when to Casualty Department, drawing it up. and the start of the NHS. The Americans who built the Churchill Hospital in Headington for their injured service men, gifted it to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1946. They left everything behind except the people. The junior nurses were sent to clean it before patients were admitted.

NURSE TRAINING MEMOIRS The nurses who trained in the 1940s remember their training with affection and below is a selection of some of their memories.

■■ Matron was in loco parentis and one nurse ■■ The uniform was a war time utility green dress remembers being summoned to Matron’s with no cuffs or starched collars. Dresses were worn office when she was seen speaking to a young for a week and a clean apron was used daily. The man, who later became her husband. “Matron dress had to come below the knee and there were was very clear that I should inform my parents different linen caps to differentiate the year groups. otherwise Matron would inform them”. ■■ There were ‘tonsil drives’ where the children were ■ ■ The work was hard, the hours long. Patients were bought in on a bus, had a tonsillectomy, stayed the washed, fed and beds made by 10am prior to doctors night, then they were given toast for breakfast before and matrons rounds. There were no bed screens, going home. However, tonsillectomies would not be the screens were wooden and had no wheels so had done if there were cases of polio in the hospital. to be manhandled into place. The wards were cold ■■ Cronshaw Ward had an iron lung, oxygen and a and nurses had to fill stone hot water bottles and suction machine as it was where the most seriously do hot water bottle rounds, these sometimes froze ill patients were nursed, a forerunner of intensive on cold nights. They also had to lay up trolleys for care. Patients with tuberculosis were nursed on all procedures, sterilising their own instruments and wards with open balconies and in bad weather their dressings, there were no disposable single use items. beds were covered with water proof sheets. ■ ■ The hospital was still a private organisation and ■■ One nurse remembers being allocated to the theatres stock takes were a regular occurrence. One nurse at the Churchill Hospital. She had a talent for drawing was called back after her night duty as a tea spoon and was asked by the surgeon to draw his operations was missing; she found it in a patient’s locker. as there was a scarcity of cameras after the war. Nurses also undertook pressure area care rounds, ■■ The nurses were not allowed to marry during observation rounds, bed pan rounds; these were their training, no men were allowed into their rooms china and had to be cleaned after use. Sputum pots and they were not allowed to go to the local pubs were also collected and cleaned in the sluice room. or dance halls. The senior porter organised dances Breakages, usually thermometers, had to be paid for. and they were by invitation only. However, on VE ■ ■ Students were given a hardback book, in which night they were allowed out without a pass! they kept notes of the lectures they attended and this was marked by Sister Tutor each week. Each ward also had a ‘work chart’ with all the procedures Patient first, self last and nurses had to learn, when sister was satisfied the nurse knew the procedure she signed it off. Students no task beneath us if it is also went on a tour of a sewage farm, water works, and a diary, cycling there with Sister Tutor. There for the patients’ benefit. were exams to be passed which included an oral exam with a consultant as part of the final exams. Radcliffe Infirmary ethos

18 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1947 1949 Independence of India and Creation of NATO Pakistan

Juliet Bostwick PROGRAMME LEAD FOR NURSING, OXFORD BROOKES

My name is Juliet Bostwick and since 2005 I have been the Programme Lead for Nursing at Oxford Brooke’s University. I qualified as a Nurse in 1980, having completed my training at The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter, Devon. After working for 2 years in the Trauma unit in Exeter, Penicillin I then moved to Switzerland and had 3 exciting years working in a local hospital in Nyon, a small town on THE SCHOOL OF NURSING the shores of Lake Geneva. I would certainly advocate the merits of nursing overseas to gain experience The Radcliffe Infirmary had a of caring for people from different cultures, as well I enjoy the good reputation for its School as learning another language! I frequently confused personal of Nursing, its ethos being – the words for bedpan & flower vase (le vase or contact, ‘patient first, self last and no la vase) - with very amusing consequences! as the task beneath us if it is for the nurses patients’ benefit’. Student In 1986 I returned to the UK and undertook a specialist Neuroscience Nursing course at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, know my name, and nurses were paid a salary of about £5 a month, ‘lived Cambridge. From then, my career progressed within make it their job to neurosciences and I eventually became the Senior Nurse find out more about in’ and had all meals and laundry provided. Rationing in charge of the Neuroscience unit in Cambridge. It was me as a person. was in place and they had to during my time here that I also decided to undertake All the nurses are collect their own rations of a Master’s degree in Health Sciences at Birmingham friendly, and helpful. sugar and butter. They spent University. I am currently studying for a professional 3 months in the Preliminary doctorate in education, for completion in 2017. Patient, age 16 Training School (PTS) at Nursing people diagnosed with serious neurological Manor House in Headington. disorders has always been my passion. I relished the They learnt practical skills by using a dummy or each other. Sister Tutor also used to challenge of caring for and supporting patients and administer cod liver oil and malt on a Friday to all the student their families at some of the worst times of their lives, nurses! After this they were allocated to wards and undertook for example following serious head injury or cerebral lectures in their off duty time. Night duty was still 3 months haemorrhage, as well as providing care for people with at a time, and 3rd year nurses undertook three lots of nights chronic neurological conditions such as motor neurone and still had to attend lectures after their night shift. The shift disease and multiple sclerosis. It was humbling to see the pattern was 8-1.30pm, 1.30-9pm and 1½ days off per week. courage of patients and their families when faced with difficult decisions about their care and treatment. Over a period of 15 years in neuroscience nursing I also had the privilege of witnessing the development of cutting edge treatments for certain neurological conditions, for example the treatment of cerebral aneurysms. 1940-49 In my current role as Programme Lead I am responsible for the education of over 400 pre-registration nursing Howard Florey carried out the students and the management of a team of about 30 first ever clinical trials in 1941 academic staff. In 2015 I was part of the team who won of penicillin at the Radcliffe the Oxford Brooke’s People Award for Confidence. I Infirmary in Oxford on a strongly believe in the power of education to change Postmaster from Wolvercote people’s views and opinions and enjoy supporting near Oxford. nursing students to go on that journey of development and discovery and the opportunity to shape the 1945 future nursing workforce. It has been an honour and a privilege to be part of the nursing profession, First vaccine developed for a career choice which I have never regretted. influenza

www.brookes.ac.uk | 19 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Finn Kopp, age 8

20 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY Oxford Jo Hobbs nurses work CHILD MASTERS STUDENT Nursing provides an amazing and extremely rewarding opportunity to engage with people and across the make a real difference to their lives. Few other professions offer a greater sense of fulfilment – knowing that your care and compassion can globe support a patient and their family when they are most vulnerable, helping them to overcome the We are very proud that nurses who have trained in seemingly insurmountable. Every patient is unique Oxford are making an important contribution to the with their own story and one of the challenges of health and welfare of people throughout the world. nursing is building a relationship with your patients We have faculty nursing staff that teach internationally in to deliver the best personalised care possible. I Hong Kong and support a franchise in Nairobi to deliver have learnt so much within my first year, from my a Palliative Care programme. We also have student peers, patients, lecturers and mentors in practice exchanges with a range of European countries and and cannot wait to see what I continue to learn and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. experience over the next two years in Oxford and Many Oxford nurses have also joined the Navy, Army into the future. and RAF.

Examples of countries where our graduates have worked:

Africa Denmark Iran Mexico Spain Australia Egypt Iraq New Zealand Sweden Bermuda Falkland Islands Italy Norway Switzerland Brazil Greece Kenya Romania Tanzania Burma Hong Kong Malaya Russia Uganda Canada India Malta South Africa USA

www.brookes.ac.uk | 21 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1952 1958 Queen Elizabeth II Great Chinese Famine becomes Monarch of the 1950-59 Commonwealth realms

NEW SYLLABUS FOR The NHS had come into being GENERAL TRAINING on 5th July 1948. This was a The Nurses Act 1949 had momentous, root and branch 1950 strengthened the educational John Hopps role the General Nursing Council change in health care, so invented the (GNC) and in 1952 a new the 1950s were a period of first cardiac syllabus for general training settling into the new structure pacemaker was completed and approved. A reduced post war workforce and also of recovery after resulted in the government the enormous upheaval of looking overseas to help boost the Second World War. nurse numbers, which brought a large arrival of nurses from the Caribbean. Great advances were being made in medical research, Patients’ expected nurses to be involved in hygiene, nutrition such as the link between smoking and lung cancer. and care of the environment. Certainly, nurses dealt with many Social change and freedoms for nurses however, still lay different problems, such as the London Smog that caused some way ahead. Matron had control over the private approximately 4000 deaths in 1951. and working lives of nurses and students and getting married meant leaving nursing. In Oxford in the 1950s there were 500 beds at the Radcliffe Infirmary, and the Matron, Miss Preddy, was in charge of

1953 James Watson and Francis Crick work on the structure of the DNA molecule

1954 Dr. Joseph E. Murray performs the first kidney transplant

Sinead Woodley, age 11

22 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1959 Cuban Revolution. World population reaches 3 billion Professor Catherine nurse training. It was a four year training; 3 years as Stoddart a student and 1 year as a staff nurse. The 8 week CHIEF NURSE, preliminary training at the Manor House, now in the OXFORD UNIVERSITY grounds of the John Radcliffe site, consisted of learning HOSPITALS NHS how to apply leeches, coddle eggs, make calves foot FOUNDATION TRUST jelly and test urine using a Bunsen burner, as well as the theory and practice of nursing, anatomy, physiology I have had the privilege of being the Chief and hygiene. New students were still however, well Nurse Oxford University Hospitals Trust since acquainted with the sluice, where among other duties they had to count dirty laundry before bagging, April 2014. I was previously the Chief Nurse sometimes by candle light if there was a power cut! and Midwifery Officer of Western Australia, Night duty consisted of an arduous 3 months of nights where I held positions in both the Australian split into 10 nights on and 4 off and 11 on and 3 off. State and Commonwealth Governments. Life at the Radcliffe was not without incident. On In my nursing career I have worked in executive Sunday 20 November 1955 a train derailed between management roles and senior clinical nursing Didcot and Steventon. 11 people died and there were positions across Tertiary, General and Rural 157 casualties. Many were brought to the Radcliffe Australia including being the Executive Director Infirmary and theatres and outpatients were cleared to care for the injured. Today we would recognise this as a of Nursing across WA Country Health Service ‘Major Incident Plan’ in action. and the Regional Director for the Kimberley. I aim to ensure all health professionals contribute to healthcare improvement and high quality care for our community. I believe it is essential to build nurses who have contemporary expertise, skills and professionalism in order to deliver excellent care that is world class. I have developed the Nursing and Midwifery Strategy for OUHT which is aiming to achieve international recognition as a Magnet Trust by 2018. I am passionate about ensuring that Oxford is the city where nurses and midwives can have a thriving professional career while delivering excellent care to patients and the community.

Above is a 1950s set photo taken after their 3 month Preliminary Training School. Below is the set reunion in 2011 when they celebrated 55 years of nursing.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 23 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1960 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. The birth control pill delivers “I Have a Dream” at becomes commercially the March on Washington. 1960-69 available Assassination of John F. Kennedy

GROUND-BREAKING ADVANCES If the Fifties were a decade For the NHS, now firmly established and growing, the Sixties lived in black and white, would be a great decade. The introduction of sterile supplies brought an end to the endless washing and sterilisation then the Sixties was one of equipment such as dressings and syringes. Treatment lived in Technicolour. was improved by innovations such as the polio vaccine, chemotherapy and the introduction of renal dialysis. In 1961 The ‘Swinging Sixties’ as they are known, are widely one of the biggest decisions in NHS history was taken, when recognised as a defining decade for Britain; full of the contraceptive pill was made available and free on the NHS. freedom, hope and promise. For the teenagers of the Initially, it was only available to married women, but following 1960s this would be the first without conscription. The a relaxation in the law between 1962 and 1969, the number parents of the Sixties teenage generation had spent of women taking the pill rose dramatically, from approximately their youth fighting for their lives in the Second World 50,000 to 1 million. It was also a decade of ground breaking War and wanted their own children to enjoy their youth surgical advances. In 1962 Professor John Charnely carried and be able to have more fun and freedom out the first full hip replacement. In 1968 Christiaan Barnard crossed a milestone in the new field of life-extending surgery by performing the world’s first heart transplant in South Africa. Sadly these advances were not matched by the outdated and war-damaged buildings in which staff had to work. To overcome this Enoch Powell, Minister of Health, developed The Hospital Plan, published in 1962, proposed the development of District General Hospitals for population areas of about 125,000 and laid out a pattern for the future district by district. It soon became clear however, that it would take much longer than expected to realise, but a start had been made. Better management had also become a priority. In 1967 the Salmon Report was published. The report set out recommendations for developing the nursing staff structure and raising the status of the profession in hospital management; a development that would ultimately herald the end of the traditional matron role.

Nurses make children better. In 125 years time different machines will be used, perhaps smaller machines. I think that the uniforms will still be the same. Also I think that more drugs would be given through plasters, which is what I have now.

Patient, age 9

Study Days, 1960s

24 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1968 Assassinations 1969 of Martin Luther King, Jr. First moon landing and Robert F. Kennedy during the Poor People’s Campaign

Lowri Aldworth MENTAL HEALTH NURSING GRADUATE

I feel very proud of the three years I spent at Oxford Brookes University and the experiences I had there undertaking my mental health nursing masters degree. Mental Health nursing is something I feel passionate about because it’s not just a case of relying on a medication to make someone feel better. It’s about using your skills as a nurse, as a human being, to work with someone holistically to Student nurses, 1960s help them recover. It’s enabling people to not just manage their illness but also lead fulfilling, happy HIERARCHY AND CONTROL and meaningful lives. For every person there will For nursing students in the sixties this was still some way off be different goals and challenges, and that’s what and participation in the swinging sixties was pretty much a makes this job so interesting and rewarding distant dream. Matron and ward sisters were still incredibly powerful and sometimes fearsome figures and in the staff When I reflect upon that time I think of the dining room, staff sat strictly in their level of rank. Everything, wonderfully supportive lecturers, the friends uniform, behaviour and the way in which patients were treated was still regimented by a strict hierarchy. Many nurses often I made along the way, and the beautiful started training at 18 or even younger, so the hospital and city I lived and worked in. Throughout the matron had almost a role of legal guardian through training. course I felt that my studies and experiences They had control over when you were allowed out and how late you could stay out. There was a strict hierarchy on the mattered to those around me; I felt part of the ward and no nurse would dare talk to a consultant unless university and part of something important. they were spoken to first. Pay was poor; £9 a month after laundry and accommodation costs. For some it was a I feel incredibly grateful that those years led struggle to survive and moonlighting was common. Student me to do the job I love now. Whilst at Oxford nurses had to live in the nurses’ home and would be locked Brookes I was not simply a student, but always a in at 10.30pm. In the wards there was a still an emphasis future graduate, so that I was supported to think on cleaning and after changing all the beds, student nurses would have to damp dust around the beds and clean and about the next step, and what sort of future I sterilise the bedpans for the day. wanted to carve out for myself. Everything about

Mrs Holloway writes: “I trained at the Churchill Hospital in my experience went above and beyond what I October 1966 and well remember the rigid routines as we could have hoped for, and I feel very proud to alternated between the Churchill and the Radcliffe Infirmary say I am an Oxford Brookes graduate; Oxford in our training and later at Cowley Road geriatric hospital”. Despite this, there was a lot of shared camaraderie and Brookes made me the nurse I am today. teamwork in the ward which would forge lifetime friendships. Neither was nursing as a professional influence on care standing still, exemplified by Nurse Dame Cicely Saunders who set 1967 up the first hospice in 1967. Nurse Dr. Christiaan education was also developing and Barnard the first degrees in nursing were performs the introduced in Edinburgh in 1960. first human By the late 1960s masters degree heart transplant courses in nursing had started to appear in many universities around the country. www.brookes.ac.uk | 25 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION

1975 1976 End of Vietnam War and First outbreak of the 1970-79 Fall of Saigon Ebola virus

TRAINING ‘THE RADCLIFFE WAY’ The 1970s brought us the miner’s On the first day new recruits had tea with the Nurses Home strike, which led to the 3 day Warden. The intake or ‘sets’ as they were known started in January, May and September and there were 30-70 students week, with electricity cuts and at a time. petrol rationing. We also saw the There was a 6 week ‘Introductory Course’ which covered invention of the CAT scan, the how to make a bed ‘the Radcliffe way’, lectures and practical first test tube baby, and vaccines sessions on bandaging, lifting and handling, and how to provide personal care and bed bathing. It was also about for rubella and chicken pox. learning by experience and student nurses were supported by clinical teachers who would come to the wards to teach All new trainees at the time were housed in Arthur practical skills Sanctuary House in one of 169 rooms. When they first arrived in Oxford, they were issued with the blue Nurses spent a number of weeks, usually 8 on the wards as uniform which is still in use today. They were also given part of the establishment and they were not supernumerary. paper caps to wear with one stripe to indicate that you They had 2 weeks ‘on block’ in the classroom having lectures. were a first year nurse. These were divided up into the anatomical functions of the body and were based on a medical model. Shift patterns were decided by the duty rota and nights were not on block but part of the eight week placement. A record of all clinical hours worked including night duty had to be kept. During the 2nd year of training, where a cap with two stripes 1970 1975 was worn, student nurses went on secondments to geriatrics, psychiatry, midwifery or community. First vaccine Robert S. developed for Ledley invents Prior to the end of the course, student nurses had to rubella and 1974 undertake the four clinical assessments that needed to be for chicken pox CAT-Scans passed as part of the training. These were total patient care, an aseptic technique, a drug round, and communication and organisation (running a shift for the day). When students progressed to their 3rd year there was an interview with the head of the School of Nursing, Miss Harrold, and if you were of an acceptable standard you were If you were of an acceptable then given a starched cap to wear which had to have 7 pleats in the back. standard you were then given Third year students were left in charge of wards at night with the night sister doing her rounds through the night, and being a starched cap to wear which on call via a bleep. had to have 7 pleats in the back. Over the 3 years of training, nurses had a book – the ‘Syllabus of subjects for Examination and Record of Practical Instruction and Experience for the Certification of General Nursing’. This was issued by the General Nursing Council, the body which preceded the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC). The student took this to each ward (and guarded it with her life) and as they experienced different nursing procedures they were signed off by the ward sister or staff nurse during the placement. Procedures could be signed off during the 1st, 2nd or 3rd years. Students also needed 1978 to attend 35 clinical classes over First test- 3 years; these were ward based tube baby sessions given by the sister or is born staff nurses.

26 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1977 Introduction of the first mass-produced personal computers

THE FINAL EXAMINATION Emma Heron They were now also studying for their final examination which were two three-hour papers. Hospital finals were also RESEARCH NURSE, undertaken which if you passed, allowed you to receive a UHBRISTOL NHS hospital badge. Once state finals had been passed nurses TRUST were expected to stay at the Oxford Hospitals for at least another year for a 4th year. There was usually a discussion I find it hard to believe it has been 15 years since I between the School, the ward sister and the nurse about graduated as an adult nurse from Oxford Brookes where to ‘staff’. Most sisters would offer a place to a nurse who had worked well during her placement and fitted into University! I worked for 3 years in Oxford, mainly as the team. a staff nurse in the Eye Hospital (on Doyne ward as it was then) and my love of Ophthalmology continued once I moved to Bristol after getting married in NEW TRAINING MODEL 2003. In January 2005, I had an unexpected move During the 1970s the School of Nursing moved from the Harkness Building and the older part of the RI to Cardiac Intensive Care and despite feeling very to the academic block at the new John Radcliffe much like a fish out of water at first, I grew to love Hospital in Headington. The Briggs Report, published the unit and the people I was working with and have in the early 1970s, proposed a new model of nurse continued my link with the Bristol Heart Institute training. All nurses would start on the same course and undertake an 18 month foundation course right up to the present time. I have been a research leading to a certificate. A further 18 months would nurse for the last 6 years and my work has taken me allow the student to specialise in a particular branch on an interesting journey including working both in of nursing or midwifery and lead to registration, the hospital and also as a research associate at the marking a break with the apprentice style of training. It took until 1979 to come to fruition and led to the University of the West of England. I currently work United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing and as a part time bank research nurse for UHBristol Midwifery (UKCC) the forerunner of the Nursing and NHS Trust, which I love doing. Midwifery Council (NMC).

HEALTH CARE ASSISTANT ROLE During the 1970s the Radcliffe Infirmary appointed a Clinical Instructor for Nursing Auxiliaries (today they are Health Care Assistants) the training they received often lead them to train as State Enrolled Nurses. The course was one week at the Churchill Hospital in the class room learning bed making, blanket bathing, mouth care, patient positioning and observations. They were then orientated to the ward where they would be working.

Student nurses, May 1973 set

www.brookes.ac.uk | 27 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1980 1982 Independence of Rhodesia, Falklands war 1980-89 which becomes Zimbabwe

THE NHS EXPANDS The 1980s were the decade The 1980s heralded in the 4th decade and a time of great of Prime Minister Margaret change for the NHS. The Griffiths Report of 1983 brought in a General Management structure, which replaced the traditional Thatcher, the Falkland’s war, Clinical Managers in the NHS. For the first time performance miner’s strikes, chunky mobile indicators were used and the NHS became more business and phones, BMX bikes, microwaves finance orientated. There were also organisational changes to nursing in 1983 with the setting up of the United Kingdom and home computers. Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC), comprising four national boards, each of which had Prince Charles married responsibility for setting standards and quality assurance for Lady Diana and a new term nurse education. Also introduced at this time was the first Code ‘Sloane Rangers’ permeated 1980 of Conduct for Nurses, which outlined the ethics and standards the British consciousness. nurses should adhere to. Another major change nationally was As did ‘Yuppies’ (Young Smallpox is the moving of nurse training from hospitals based programmes Urban Professionals); eradicated into higher education. The nurse practitioner role was emerging ambitious and upwardly at this time and there were also significant changes to mental mobile as they flashed health provision underway; The Parkinson Report in 1979 the cash of their success. having recommended the closure of the old ‘asylums’ by Fashion found leg warmers, moving care into the community. eye watering colours and big hair – it was perhaps not a The role of enrolled nurse also started to be phased out. Places decade of fashion’s finest hour! for registered general nurse training nurses were also reduced, which many believe seeded the perfect storm of the recruitment crisis we are now experiencing in 2016.

In hospital I like it that I can keep my own toys in my room, and have my Disney Princess duvet cover.

Patient, age 9

Ward team, 1980s

For the first time performance indicators were used and the NHS became more business and finance orientated.

28 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1986 1989 GPS becomes available. Fall of the Berlin Wall Challenger and Chernobyl disasters

CLINICAL GRADING Helen Foord- INTRODUCED Warren By 1987, many NHS ADULT NURSING 1983 Authorities were in debt, STUDENT, SWINDON waiting lists were extending CAMPUS HIV, the virus that and wards were being causes AIDS, closed. Pay disputes were is identified very determined and often I chose nursing because I wanted to care for successful: nurses pay people and make a difference. However, since I 1985 went up by 12.3% over a 19 month period. This was have started my training, Oxford Brookes has made Willem J. Kolff also the decade that saw me realise that there is so much more to nursing invented the the introduction of Clinical than I imagined. To be able to nurse someone is Grading in 1988, it operated artificial kidney a privilege. dialysis machine on the premise that pay should be determined by I have felt privileged every time a patient has tasks undertaken rather than inflexible job titles. This allowed me to come into their home, or sit by their introduction was highly bed, or hold their hand so that I can help them. controversial and 100,000 nurses appealed, stating that they had received an inaccurate and unfair grade: it was 2003 before I feel my training so far has made a huge difference all those appeals were finally settled. In Oxford, there was a to my growth as a student nurse and I have felt part strong drive to be creative and radical. Carter from the Radcliffe Infirmary Guild writes that,”The unique partnership between of a family at Oxford Brookes. Oxford Health Authority and Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) was created in 1986”. This shift resulted in a four year undergraduate degree comprised of four nursing awards (Adult, Children’s, Leaning Disability and Mental Health) and Midwifery. The degree offered two years of combined study for all four branches of nursing followed by two years of field specific modules. In 1989, all programmes were jointly validated by the Polytechnic and representatives of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The first cohort of students started on 25th September 1989.

INTRODUCING THE LECTURER PRACTITIONER Oxford also developed a new and innovative role of Lecturer Practitioner, a ground breaking joint appointment between the NHS and Oxford Polytechnic. Lecturer Practitioners were expert practitioners responsible for both the learning environments in their practice areas and the education of students. The 1980s had certainly been a turbulent decade of losses and gains, but for many nurses it brought not just higher pay but also a recognition of their professional contribution of nursing and the need to offer them both an academic as well as practice focused education, such that these two strands would be Cohort of nursing students, 1980s indivisible. www.brookes.ac.uk | 29 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Swindon’s medical heritage

The GWR Medical Fund Hospital in Faringdon Road, Swindon, part of a system that became a blueprint for the NHS (dates unknown, courtesy of The Swindon Society)

BLUEPRINT FOR THE NHS Swindon has a rich and Indeed, Britain’s greatest invention, the National Health proud heritage - not least Service, was inspired by the GWR Medical Fund, which in its impressive history was founded in Swindon in 1847. of medical care. A century later, Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS, found the Fund was the perfect blueprint for his plan, noting: “There it was: a complete health service. All we had to do was While the town’s gigantic workshops were once the to expand it to embrace the whole country.” beating heart of the Great Western Railway (the world’s greatest), just as impressive were the railway town’s Although founded by chief engineer Daniel Gooch, the Fund social and welfare systems. was run by the workers, for the workers, who paid for it directly from their wages. It was a true ‘cradle to grave’ system, from pre-natal care to funeral services. The Works even manufactured artificial limbs for injured workers, while railwaymen and their families all had access to washing baths, swimming baths and even Turkish baths. The GWR built a house for its doctor (Park House, which still stands), and opened a cottage hospital (now a community centre) in 1872. It was fitting, then, that the NHS’s first new hospital, named after Princess Margaret, was built in Swindon. Just as fitting was the naming of the town’s new NHS hospital, which opened in 2002, as the Great Western Hospital. Swindon’s advanced healthcare traditions can be seen in parts of the story of the town’s workhouse, at Stratton, which was one of the most enlightened in Victorian times, and its infirmary evolved into a general hospital that provided excellent care for long-term and elderly patients.

30 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY The former workhouse site also hosted military casualties during the Second World War, caring for horribly burned tank crews after D-Day, while Lydiard Park, on the western Dr Obrey Alexis outskirts of town, hosted two temporary hospitals – firstly SENIOR LECTURER, for American forces and then for German prisoners of war. OXFORD BROOKES, Meanwhile, RAF Princess Alexandra Hospital, at nearby SWINDON Wroughton, provided full medical services to Armed Forces personnel until the 1990s. I have been a senior lecturer in Swindon for over 10 Swindon workers also have a history of producing a range years and I teach on a number of nursing and research of medical equipment. During the First World War the GWR modules. I obtained my PhD from the University Works turned out fully equipped ambulance trains, and of Surrey where I examined the experiences of among many companies with bases, offices or factories internationally recruited nurses in the NHS. I have also in the town in more recent times were surgical equipment been a visiting scholar at a number of universities in developers Deloro Stellite and capsule manufacturers RP the USA, for example, New York University, Columbia Scherer. University, John Hopkins University in Baltimore and And the world’s first heart transplant, in 1967, was carried the University of Pennsylvania. I sit on a culture and out with equipment developed and manufactured by diversity advisory group to the Chief Nursing Officer Vickers-Armstrong at South Marston, Swindon. for NHS England advising on nursing issues and raising awareness of health inequalities in black and Swindon even has connections with the world’s most famous nurse. Charlotte Wilsdon (pictured) answered minority ethnic communities. As a researcher, I have Florence Nightingale’s appeal for volunteers during the published widely in the field of international nurses and Crimean War, and set sail with her in November 1854. my other research interests include migrant health, workforce issues and prostate cancer in black men. It was great regret that Florence sent Charlotte home, on medical advice, in May 1856, with a hand-written reference claiming she was “a kind, Hilary active and useful nurse” and - unlike many of their Walker colleagues - “a strictly CHIEF NURSE, GREAT sober woman”. WESTERN HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION Born in Abingdon, TRUST Charlotte later moved to Swindon and is buried at Nursing is special. Radnor Street Cemetery, under her married name, There are few Andrews. professions that offer the freedom to provide a personal response OXFORD BROOKES to people at their time AT FERNDALE of greatest need. At its best, nursing embodies caring and therapeutic practice alongside skilful performance In 1989, nurse education moved into higher of the more visible technical interventions of modern day education establishments and the Oxford Brookes healthcare. The diversity of nursing makes it an exciting, Swindon Campus at Ferndale was opened in 1999. rewarding career. Every year practice innovations, Nursing degrees and diplomas have been delivered research and education help nurses to push the at Ferndale since this time and the pre-registration boundaries and widen their contribution to the delivery masters route was introduced in 2013. of high quality, contemporary healthcare. At the same In 2016 Oxford Brookes will move to a new site in time nurse leaders at all levels become increasingly Swindon for the next part of its history of educating adept at influencing the wider health and social care nurses and operating department practitioners for agenda through the development of business skills. Wiltshire and the South West. The nursing profession has always and will continue to improve the safety of and evidence base for care, however the ‘constants’ of nursing remain as they ever were: the ability to establish a meaningful connection with others, to understand and interpret their needs and to care for them with compassion and humanity.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 31 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1990 1992 Sir Tim Berners-Lee invents Maastricht Treaty creates the World Wide Web. the European Union 1990-99 Gulf War begins

COOL BRITANNIA The 1990s was a decade of rapid Culturally, the 1990s in the UK were characterized by Britpop technological advancement. and Cool Britannia and more broadly the emergence of multiculturalism; the view that diverse cultures in a society, The World Wide Web had just been invented and the with their own racial, religious and cultural customs and ownership of personal computers and mobile phones values should merit equal respect. In medicine, this was to be was rapidly on the rise. The first web browser went the decade of gene therapy, stem cell research, smart pills, online in 1993 and by 2001, more than 50% of some and Viagra. Amid much controversy in 1996, cloning arrived Western countries had when the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, was successfully Internet access and more cloned from an adult cell at the Roslin Institute, University of than 25% had mobile Edinburgh. phone access. Media now took many forms, INTRODUCING NHS TRUSTS including print, audio, 1996 Health care and nurse education were also undergoing video and internet and art Dolly the sheep seismic shifts. The NHS and Community Care Act (1990) came out of the galleries becomes the heralded the introduction of an ‘internal market’ into the NHS. and into the street; there first clone NHS Trusts, created in 1991, would become independent were now many ways to providers, while Health and Local Authorities became communicate. assessors and purchasers of care from providers such as hospitals. The focus was now on enabling health by tailoring care to the needs of the individual. The General Practice (GP) Contract of 1990 with its focus on health prevention

In 125 years from now machines will be more technical, perhaps smaller equipment and different tools and hopefully less time can be spent in hospital. But the day to day care of patients won’t change. I also think that the uniforms won’t change in a 125 years, and I believe that the essence and care of patients is at the heart of care.

Patient, age 16

Patrycja Wieckowska, age 9

32 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 1990 1991 Nelson Mandela is freed. Collapse of the Soviet Euro is introduced Union

Ros Alstead DIRECTOR and promotion launched a boom in Practice Nursing, as OF NURSING this was the first time GPs would be paid for doing health AND CLINICAL screening, preventative and promotion. STANDARDS, OXFORD HEALTH NHS PROJECT 2000 FOUNDATION TRUST Also in nursing as the decade opened, enrolled nurse training ended and Project 2000 was implemented I have been a registered general and mental nationally by the nurse regulator, United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC). health nurse for over thirty years. My nursing This was the point when nursing students moved from career started in a way which is familiar to all a paid apprenticeship to a supernumerary model during undergraduate nurses today; in 1977 I was in the their clinical placements. Newly qualified nurses became first cohort of nursing undergraduates in London a Registered General Nurse (RGN) rather than a State University. Throughout my career I have used an Registered Nurse (SRN). The P2000 common foundation academic knowledge base comprising a sound programme was similar to Oxford’s, but the completing grounding in life sciences and social sciences to qualification was at diploma level not the degree level underpin my practice. From this early stage the offered in Oxford. importance of developing the evidence base in nursing, as well as using established evidence OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY In 1992, Oxford Polytechnic became a University and was important, it remains so today. Equally honoured its founding Vice-Principal, John Henry Brookes’, important is experiential learning which continues when it chose the name Oxford Brookes University. The to be a significant influence. I am no different to Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy also became any nurse who works on a daily basis with other part of the new institution and joined Nursing in the new inspirational nurses and other team colleagues School of Health Care, then under the stewardship of Ruth to continuously improve the patients’ experience Champion, Dean of School. Developing its strong theme and outcomes. Whilst the context of care changes of multi professional education, Physiotherapy education these things remain constant and we can practice joined the undergraduate pre-registration portfolio in 1998. what we have learnt safely in changing times. The need to offer further and higher education for qualified Nursing has been a fantastic career, it brings nurses was also high on the agenda in the nineties. As a great variety and human interest, which ranges result, Post-Registration and Education and Practice (PREP) was introduced by the UKCC in 1995, as the system to from celebrating success in care and recovery both monitor quality of practice and to ensure that nurses to the depths of sadness working with people kept up to date, particularly as technological advances at the most vulnerable times of their lives to were changing so much of health care assessment and achieve the outcomes they aspire to. management. Thirty years ago nursing care was ‘given’ to As the Millennium approached, in Oxford, adult nursing was patients the nurse knew best and identified the spreading its wings in 1999 with the introduction of an adult interventions. Today patients and carers are nursing programme in Swindon at Oxford Brookes new supported to manage their own healthcare and campus at Ferndale. outcomes for as long as possible and to enable patients and families to achieve their goals. John Henry Brookes Building at night, 2014 (below left) Simulation labs, Swindon Campus (below right)

www.brookes.ac.uk | 33 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

2001 2003 September 11 terror Iraq War begins. attacks in New York and Washington DC

2000-16 2010 2012 A 7.0 magnitude The Higgs Boson is earthquake in Haiti kills discovered 230,000

MEDICAL As the 20th century closed BREAKTHROUGHS and a new millennium opened, In medicine much had everyone breathed a collective 2008 been achieved. The human Major genome has been mapped sigh of relief when the feared developments in to give us an unprecedented millennium computer bug didn’t the understanding understanding of the materialise to cause the digital of aspects characteristics of inheritance of human and disease processes, chaos that had been predicted. reproduction such that we are now in developed by a much stronger position By 2000 and as the decade progressed, the Emeritus Professor than ever before to develop phenomenal growth in technology and the internet Nigel Groome, new diagnostic tests and touched and influenced all aspects of life. We are now Oxford Brookes treatments. In 2007, scientists more connected than at any other point in history. University made a vital breakthrough This has brought many benefits, but also turbulence. when they reprogrammed Economic growth brought considerable environmental adult skin cells to become consequences, as demand for diminishing energy stem cells, this overcame the resources soared, bringing concerns about climate ethical issues associated with use of embryos and brought change and global economic stability. The attack the use of stem cells in therapy closer to a reality. These on the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001 developments, and the more sophisticated treatments they will heralded new fears about security, and migration from bring, will have both a profound effect on responsive health care conflicts concerns about and perhaps more significantly, for our future health, prevention social stability. In July 2008, strategies. Oxford Brookes reflected this zeitgeist by appointing FUTURE HEALTH CARE Shami Chakrabarti, Director In 2001, Oxford Brookes introduced the Diploma in Nursing of Liberty (pictured) and for all its four branches. This ran in parallel with the Bachelor’s a respected human rights Degree until 2013, the point when the Nursing Midwifery Council campaigner, to replace Jon (NMC), that had been established by Parliament in 2001, Snow as Chancellor of the decreed that all entry onto the Register should be from nurses University. who have studied at bachelor’s degree level or above. The School also continued to develop its multi-professional focus with Paramedic Emergency Care joining the School in 2000 and Operating Department Practice and Social Work in 2002; an addition that resulted in its change of name to the School of Health and Social Care (SHSC). Osteopathy joined in 2003.

MARSTON ROAD CAMPUS In 2004, the School then scattered across 12 sites in Oxford, was brought together under the direction of June Girvin, Dean of School into state-of-the-art facilities in the recently acquired and refurbished Milham Ford Girls School in Marston. The School went from strength to strength and celebrated, with the University in September 2010, Oxford Brookes being named the UK’s best post-1992 university for the tenth year running in The Sunday Times’ University Guide. During this time Dr Liz Westcott has led the pre-registration nursing programmes Marston Road Campus, acquired for School of Health as Director and then Department Head, ably supported over and Social Care in 2004 the years by Juliet Bostwick, Dr Sharon Black, Bev Gillings,

34 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 2004 2005 Boxing Day Tsunami occurs IRA end military campaign in in Indian Ocean, leading to Northern Ireland. 7/7 attacks the deaths of 230,000 on London Underground

Dr Georgie Hawley, Dr Ian Holt, Dr Sandy Oldfield, Neville Emma Blakey Scrivener, Rachel Skittrall, Julia Winter and Peter Zaagman. Dr Ann Ewens, Department Head and Dr Helen Walthall have led ADULT NURSING the post graduate and post registration programmes for the last STUDENT, OXFORD decade. BROOKES

THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES Deciding to make a career change later in life In 2011 Health and Social Care joined with the School of has been the best thing I have ever done. For Biological and Medical Sciences and Psychology to become many years I worked in health improvement but The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Nurse education was not standing still either. In 2013 the first cohort of Pre- had always felt there was something missing so registration Nursing Masters degree students joined the Faculty; I was delighted to be accepted onto the Adult a programme that provided an opportunity for those who had Nursing Degree at Oxford Brookes University. already gained a Bachelor’s degree in another subject to study For me, nursing has filled a gap by allowing at masters level to become a nurse. me to put my values into practical action. I feel nursing is about caring, empowering and advocating. It is also about challenging inequalities and doing something about the context in which people make health decisions. By becoming a nurse I honestly feel as if all the pieces of the puzzle have come together and I am excited about my future career and working with others to improve people’s health.

KNOWLEDGE THROUGH RESEARCH THE The establishment of the Institute of Nursing and RADCLIFFE Allied Health Research (OxINAHR) in 2015, has INFIRMARY ensured that as nurse education celebrates its 125 GUILD year anniversary it will be well equipped to continue to break new ground. It will enable our nurses and The Radcliffe allied health professionals to develop the knowledge Infirmary Guild through research that they will need to address the celebrated urgent health challenges that face our region and their 90th wider society. For more information, visit: Anniversary in http://www.oxinahr.com/ June 2015 with a meeting and lunch for 120 Guild In 2014 The Oxford Academic members. Many nurses who trained in Oxford and also Health Sciences Centre, a now Oxford Brookes graduates have joined over the partnership between Oxford years and it is a great way to keep up with your peers Brookes University, Oxford and also to meet nurses who have being educated Health NHS Foundation Trust, in Oxford and now Swindon too, as a common link. Oxford University Hospitals This cake was made for the celebrations which also NHS Foundation Trust, and included a tour of what remains of the Radcliffe the University of Oxford was Infirmary building on Woodstock Road. launched. To join the Guild or for more details, please email [email protected] Professor of Nursing, Debra Jackson

www.brookes.ac.uk | 35 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD Back in the day...

School of Health Care staff, 1990s

Student nurses, 1980s

Christmas on Victoria Ward, 1960s Outside the Churchill Hospital,1960s

36 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY Anna Hemphill SENIOR LECTURER

I joined Oxford Polytechnic as a Lecturer Practitioner in 1991. This was an exciting time for nursing in Oxford, with a strong vision from leaders in practice and education for a practice led nursing degree course taught by expert practitioners who Adult nursing graduates class of 2000 were also researchers, managers and teachers. The Lecturer Practitioner role was truly integrated so that I could be teaching a student in the classroom one day and working alongside them caring for children having surgery the following day. As part of my clinical role I was the specialist nurse for children with cleft lip and palate and became interested in how nurses could support families with the psychological impact of this condition. This led me to undertake training in family therapy. In 2001 I moved to working as a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes. This gave me the opportunity to develop a short course, ‘the psychosocial care of children, adolescents and their families’, which aimed to enable practitioners to better understand family dynamics and the emotional needs of children and to work therapeutically with them. Nurses canteen, 1966 Subsequently I spent a year as a post graduate student at Oxford Brookes, training to become a health visitor. Being a health visitor has enabled me to, once again, to learn from my own practice and use that learning to inform my teaching. I believe that the essence of nursing lies in the relationship that the nurse develops with her clients. For me, learning from clients about their experience is key to being an effective educator.

Student nurses, 1960s

www.brookes.ac.uk | 37 125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD 2016 programme of events Please see the website to book your places: www.nursing.brookes.ac.uk/125-years

JANUARY 21 JHBB Launch of 125 years events and celebration booklet

JHBB 125 years celebrations inaugural lecture – Professor Brendan McCormack: Capturing 21 6pm the energy within – the future landscape of nurse education FEBRUARY 17 6pm JHBB Professor Debra Jackson, Professorial Lecture

Marston Professor Kim Usher: A Celebration of mental health nursing highlighting some key 25 5pm Road developments over the past four decades MARCH

24 5pm Marston Dr Ann Bradshaw lecture: History of nursing post Nightingale Road Followed by exhibition of nursing history

25-28 Easter Break APRIL

19 5pm Marston Professor Lynn McDonald: History of nursing pre and including Nightingale Road Followed by exhibition of nursing history 23 9am Fun Walk/ Run event at Harcourt Hill Oxford and Swindon Swindon 26 12pm Campus Professor Kate Seers MAY 11 International Nurses week 12 International Nurses Day – OUHT, OBU joint nurses conference TBC International Nurses week student lunch

JHBB Professor Viv Bennett CBE: The Best Start in Life for All our Children and Young 17 5pm People Marston 18 6pm Road Health Matters debate on Dementia TBC Tours round hospitals 21 12pm OBU Celebration lunch open to all at Oxford Brookes Restaurant JUNE Swindon 7 2pm Campus Professor Sarah Kagan: Book Smarts. Street Smarts, Nurse Smarts Marston 16 5pm Road Professor Alison Kitson lecture JULY 20 6pm JHBB Professor Catherine Stoddart lecture AUGUST Marston 1 5pm Road Professor Patricia Davidson: Women live longer but at what cost? SEPTEMBER All Together Better Health V111 conference in Oxford 6-9 http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/atbh8 Swindon TBC Campus Professor Debra Jackson OCTOBER TBC TBC Ruth Norway lecture Christ Church 18 Cathedral Annual St Frideswide Civic Cathedral service, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford NOVEMBER TBC TBC Sarah Cowley Lecture DECEMBER Oxford / TBC Swindon Future of Nursing Debate TOP DOWN: Department staff receiving the Brookes People Award for Confidence, June 2015; Department of Nursing staff on International Nurses Day 2015; Mental Health team

SOURCES

Annual Reports and Magazines of The Radcliffe Guild of Nurses Oxford Institute of Nursing and Allied Health Research (OxINAHR) http://www.brookes.ac.uk/support-us/finding-solutions/health/ Autograph book held by Oxford Health Archive in which wounded excellence-in-nursing-and-allied-health-care soldiers recorded their WW1 experiences of health care in The Radcliffe Infirmary Local Histories www.localhistories.org/20thcent.html and www.localhistories.org/1930slife.html BBC (2010) The medical milestones that defined the noughties http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8421172.stm Moss, A (2007) Images of England- The Radcliffe Infirmary

BBC (2011) History http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/ Selby Green, J (1990) The History of the Radcliffe Infirmary. Image victorian_medicine_01.shtml Publications. Banbury

BBC (2014) History - Mary Seacole (1805 - 1881) http://www.bbc. Royal British Nurses Association www.rbna.org.uk/ co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml The Royal College of Nurses www.rcn.org.uk/ BBC (2014) How the UK coped with the millennium bug 15 years ago http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30576670 Science Museum - www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/ techniques/nursing.aspx and http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ Bines, H & Watson, D (1992) Developing Professional Education. broughttolife/themes/practisingmedicine/women.aspx SRHE AND Open University Press The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh http://www.roslin. Bone, M (1970) Relief of the sick and lame – two hundred years of ed.ac.uk/public-interest/dolly-the-sheep/a-life-of-dolly/ Nursing at the Radcliffe Infirmary. The Times and Sunday Times’ University Guide Hansard Reports www.parliament.uk/business/publications/ http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/gug/ hansard/ U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (1999) Issues in Labor Statistics: Heatley, N (2004) A County Hospital 1920 - 1988 produced by the Computer Ownership up sharply in the 1990s, Bureau of Labor Penicillin and Luck Statistics Summary 99-4 March 1999: Washington, DC http://www. bls.gov/opub/btn/archive/computer-ownership-up-sharply-in-the- History of the Radcliffe Infirmary, www.ouh.nhs.uk/hospitals/jr/ 1990s-pdf.pdf radcliffe-infirmary.aspx Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Further information

To find out more about the 125 Years of CONNECT WITH US Nurse Education in Oxford celebration, please contact Robyn Thompson-Vango at @lwestcott1 [email protected] @JuneinHE or phone +44 (0) 1865 482565 @obu_nursing www.nursing.brookes.ac.uk/ @AnnEwens 125-years @sharp_pam @mazwaite For more information about the @pascale_blakey Department of Nursing visit: @OxINAHR @obu_nursing http://nursing.brookes.ac.uk

/brookes.nursing For more information about the Nursing Practice Research Group visit: /oxfordbrookes ww.nursing.brookes.ac.uk/ research/nursing-practice

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Oxford Brookes University Jackstraws Lane Marston, Oxford Oxon OX3 OFL 6283_CC_01/16