Education for a profession: some lessons from history (Florence Nightingale).

Abstract

The Statutory Bodies for Education set up under the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act of 1979 came into full operation in 1983. More than a century earlier the Nightingale Training School for Nurses opened in association with St. Thomas’s Hospital. It was financed by the Nightingale Fund which had been donated by the public during the Crimean War “to establish an institution for the training, sustenance and protection of nurses and hospital attendants” (Greater London Record Office (1) [GLRO]). A recent study has explored the Nightingale Training Scheme as revealed through private correspondence between people associated with the Nightingale Fund and St. Thomas’ Hospital from 1860 to 1887-the period during which Mrs Sarah Wardroper was Superintendent of the School (Prince, 1982). Public statements and private correspondence about the efficacy of the Fund in improving nursing through the development of nursing training are considerably at variance. The private letters that form the basis of this analysis have not previously been used to examine nineteenth century arrangements for the education and training of the nurse. Public rhetoric obsfucated important issues and diverted the attention of contemporary and subsequent commentators. Some of the problems identified in private communications have remained unresolved, and constitute a legacy for the new Statutory Bodies. At the outset, Miss Nightingale appointed a Committee to manage the Fund and in a letter to one of its members, Sir John McNeill, she provided an outline scheme for “the establishment of a normal school for nurses with a view to the ultimate elevation of that class to the position of a profession” (GLRO, 2). There is evidence that she envisaged the Nursing School developing along similar lines to the medical schools after the Medical Act of 1858, with separate funding derived from student fees with the hospital providing the arena for supervised practical experience. The setting up of the school required detailed consideration and monitoring. Miss Nightingale was however both ill and preoccupied with other business. In 1859 she signed the Deed of Delegation through which