Page 1 of 1 International Perspectives in the History of Nursing 14 – 16 September 2010 Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey CONFERENCE BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Roundtable Debate Tuesday 14th September 2010 2:45pm – 4:00pm Windsor Building Auditorium ‘Was there a Nightingale System of training, and, if so, what influence did it have on the development of nursing in the late nineteenth century?’ Chair: Anne Marie Rafferty, Professor, CBE, RN, DPhil (Oxon) Speakers: Carol Helmstadter, Toronto, Canada: ‘Nightingale‖Training‖in‖Context’ Barbra Mann-Wall,‖The‖University‖of‖Pennsylvania,‖Philadelphia,‖USA:‖‘Nuns,‖Nightingale‖and‖ Nursing’ Judith Godden,‖The‖University‖of‖Sydney,‖Australia:‖‘The‖Power‖of‖the‖Ideal:‖How‖the‖Nightingale‖ System shaped modern nursing’ Lynn McDonald ‘The‖Nightingale‖system‖of‖training‖and‖its‖influence‖worldwide’ Sponsored by Royal College of Nursing 1 Page 2 of 2 Concurrent Session 1 Session 1a: Community Nursing MOVING FORWARD BY LOOKING BACK: AN EXPLORATION OF HISTORY TEACHING IN NURSING CURRICULA ACROSS AUSTRALIA Margaret McAllister, Ed D, RN, PhD is Associate Professor, School of Health and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Science, Health and Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. 61 7 5456 5032 [email protected] Wendy Madsen, PhD, RN is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Health at Central Queensland University, Bundaberg. Judith Godden, PhD, is Honorary Associate in the Department of History, University of Sydney. Jennene Greenhill, PhD, RN is Director of Research, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of the Masters in Clinical Education program with the Flinders University Rural Clinical School in South Australia. Aim: This study took place in 2007-8 in order to provide a national perspective on the teaching of history of nursing within Australia. It aimed to produce information about existing content and processes of history teaching in undergraduate programmes. Rationale: While teaching the history of nursing can directly improve students’‖awareness‖of‖nursing‖ and professional identity, it does not enjoy a prominent place within Australian nursing curricula. Despite‖the‖extant‖body‖of‖literature‖on‖nursing’s‖history,‖for‖example,‖Lewenson‖and‖Herrmann‖ (2008) and Godden and Forsyth (2003), Australian nursing history projects have not been extended to produce educational outcomes (Nelson, 2002). Significance: The national picture produced on‖the‖challenges‖of‖teaching‖nursing’s‖history as well as the creative approaches, enabled critical analysis and a baseline for strategic curriculum development. Methodology: All Schools of Nursing in Universities across Australia were invited to participate in a national survey. Semi structured telephone interviews explored what and how the history of nursing is taught to undergraduate students within Australian nursing programmes. Findings: A good response rate was achieved, with 22 of the 36 Universities participating. The study found that even though participants valued history of nursing teaching, educators have difficulty finding a place for history in the crowded curriculum, due to an over-emphasis on technical skills. Consequently, opportunities to be pedagogically creative were minimal. The study also found that history learning in nursing in Australia occurs in a variety of ways and some respondents did move beyond teaching basic facts and dates, towards the so called second- order learning wherein students are learning history, albeit in a brief time, in order to make judgments about the profession’s‖evolution‖and‖to‖make‖decisions‖about‖the‖significance‖of‖events.‖ However, these various teaching strategies and resources are not evenly available. Conclusions: The benefits of, and approaches to, history learning need to be more persuasively disseminated across Australia. Similarly, the risk of an over-focus in the curriculum on technical competence and vocational preparedness needs to be communicated. In the context of a health-care world that is changing rapidly the pressure from industry has led to a situation where there is shrinking space for history learning within this crowded curriculum and thus we are at risk of producing short term gains of technical proficiency and losing the long term gains of critical, constructive thinkers. 2 Page 3 of 3 SICK NURSES, MONTHLY NURSES AND MIDWIVES: HOME CARE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CANADA Judith Young Independent Scholar Tel: 416 488 0597 Email: [email protected] This paper focuses on nurses and midwives hired to provide home care in the decades before nurse training was securely established in Canada. The study builds on my earlier work detailing nineteenth-century caregivers in Toronto and compares and contrasts those findings with information on nurses and midwives in the cities of Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The history of religious nursing orders, particularly in Quebec, is well documented; we know also something of early Canadian hospital nurses but little, however, of nurses and midwives hired to care for people in their homes. My study seeks to document the growth of the private health care market in nineteenth-century Canada. The major primary sources for this study were public documents such as the census, city directories, almanacs, and contemporary newspapers. Among the secondary sources, the work of Carol Helmstadter, Barbara Mortimer, Anne Summers, and Susan Reverby on British and American nursing was especially valuable. For information on working-class Canadian women I looked mainly to Bettina Bradbury and Jane Errington and for the history of midwives in Canada to Hélène Laforce and J.T.H. Connor. The findings of this study indicate that until the late nineteenth century when trained nurses appeared on the scene, nurses and midwives hired to provide care in Canadian homes were overwhelmingly working-class and female, most were literate, and many were widows. The same was true of Toronto. During this era, it was not possible to clearly separate nurses from midwives; roles were fluid and, in the course of a career, some women used both titles. I found that the number of private nurses grew as cities grew and prospered; this was most evident in Toronto and Montreal but less so in Halifax, a city that experienced less population growth. Much has been written of the ‘disappearance’‖of‖midwives‖in‖Canada.‖‖By‖the‖late‖nineteenth-century, this was very true of Toronto but not of Montreal and Halifax where a significant number of midwives continued to practice. It is possible to trace some nurses and midwives through several decades and, in particular, I highlight the surprising story of midwife Catherine Adams (1834-1908) of Halifax. 3 Page 4 of 4 LEADERSHIP STRUCTURES IN GERMAN HOME NURSING FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY- A CASE STUDY OF THE CITY OF HAMBURG Mathilde Hackmann, RN, Diplom-Pflegepädagogin (FH), MSc Hamburger Fern-Hochschule Alter Teichweg 19 – 23 22081 Hamburg Germany ++49 (0) 40 72699996 [email protected] Aim of study The study will illuminate the development of leadership structures in home nursing in the city of Hamburg against the political and social background covering the second half of the 19th and the 20th century. The following questions will be addressed: Who were the leaders? Which qualification and preparation, if any, did they have? What were typical responsibilities? Is there a progress in an independent leadership role of nurses? Rationale and significance With the introduction of long-term care insurance by the German federal government in 1994 a new role of nursing manager in home nursing was introduced. It is already known how political decisions influence home nursing in different countries (Buhler-Wilkinson 2004, Moers 1997). However no research has been conducted on the development of leadership roles in German home nursing. An historical analysis into leadership roles might help to understand the situation today and strengthen nursing services for communities in the future. Methodology To answer the research questions a case study approach was used by focussing on the city of Hamburg. Primary sources include documents from government on the federal and state level, two of the leading nursing journals, reports from the governing boards of different home nursing agencies and seven interviews with community nurses from an oral history project. Secondary sources include journal articles and studies on German home nursing conducted during the last decades. Findings In the second half of the 19th century the protestant church was very active in providing community nursing in Hamburg with lady managers or deaconesses as leaders. Private-duty nursing was mainly offered by individual nurses. In their daily work both groups of nurses were very independent with little changes up to the 1960s. A leadership role of nurses became more necessary with the building of teams of nurses. In Hamburg social workers were introduced to lead teams of community nurses in the 1980s. Conclusions The development of the independent role of the nurse manager in home nursing was not a straightforward one. In Hamburg nurses took over the leadership positions only recently. 4 Page 5 of 5 Session 1b: Technology and the Patient FROM TOUCH TO TECHNOLOGY: MASSAGE IN U.S. NURSE TRAINING-SCHOOL CURRICULA (1861-1945) Paula Thomas Ruffin, MSN, RN, CMT PhD Student/Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Center for the Study of Complementary & Alternative Therapies The University of Virginia School of Nursing 434-244-0962 [email protected]