An almost ignored Florence Nightingale battle: the opposition to the creation of the state professional register of nurses

Abstract

This contribution intends to draw attention to some little-known facts in the history of nursing regarding Florence Nightingale, whose 200th anniversary is celebrated. This is her battle against the establishment of the register of qualified nurses (what is now the Order of Nurses). Her reasons were well argued and ranged from the still insufficient education, to the strong medical interference in the Campaign in favour of the register, to the risk that the still poorly defined scientific and social solidity of the profession would have made it ancillary to medicine, up to the concrete impracticability of keeping a register always updated to exclude any subjects who were no longer suitable. In addition to information on the patroness of the Campaign for the registration of nurses Ethel Bedford Gordon Fenwick, one of the founders of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the links with women's associations of the early twentieth century and the current Italian National Association of Nurses (Consociazione nazionale delle Associazioni infermieri, CNAI) emerge. Furthermore, little known information on the origins of professional regulation of nurses, particularly in the United Kingdom and Italy is reported. In the concluding part, several questions are asked that stimulate reflections on the Italian professional situation and, in particular, on the fundamentals of nursing care, on nursing education and training necessary for professional, specialist and advanced qualification, and the consequent career development.