Nurse - 1871

[MercianSte]

Hi all,


Would you have to be qualified to be a Nurse in 1871? I am just wondering if there would be any records for nurses around this date as one of my 3rd great aunt's died in March 1871 during the London Small Pox Epidemic. I would love to know where she was working at the time as I don't really know much about her.


Thanks,
MercianSte

[stanmapstone]

Before 1919, when the General Nursing Council was established, records of nurses were kept by individual nurse training schools, most of which were attached to major hospitals, where the records can often still be found. In 1919 the Government introduced a Bill which was passed and became law as the Nurses Registration Act December 23rd 1919. The Act laid down certain standards and The General Nursing Council (GNC) was required by the Act  to 'form and keep a Register of Nurses for the sick. The register was opened on 30 September 1921 and was divided into the general part, reserved for female nurses, with supplementary parts for fever nurses, male nurses, mental nurses (with a special section for nurses for mental defectives) and sick children's nurses.
By 1925 the first state examinations had been held, and the first nurses were admitted to the register by examination.
See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/civilian-nurses.htm

Stan

[MercianSte]

Hi Stan,


Thanks for your reply. It looks like finding Jane's records is just out of reach at the moment as I have no idea where she would have been trained.


Thanks,
MercianSte

[pharmaT]

I would start by looking at what hospitals and nursing schools there would have been near where she lived and where she died, narrow it down a bit.

[MercianSte]

I would start by looking at what hospitals and nursing schools there would have been near where she lived and where she died, narrow it down a bit.

 Thanks PharmaT for the advice but the problem I have is I do not know her movements after 1861. In 1861 Jane was a domestic servant in Edgbaston, Warwickshire and she died at Stockwell Small Pox Hospital in 1871, so she could have trained at any school in the midlands/south of the country!

There is also no usual address given on her death certificate so I cannot even narrow down where she was living in London. Of course she may have been working at the Small Pox Hospital but surely nobody would have been stupid enough to employ a nurse who had not had the Small Pox Vaccine at a hospital specialising in the disease, even in the Victorian era.

[pharmaT]

The vaccine is now known to be 95% effective so her dying of small pox doesn't automatically mean that she wasn't vaccinated.

Also the vaccination now known to take 3 to 5 weeks to reach full effectiveness. Being an epidemic I don't think it is improbable that staff would be rushed in. I would start with checking to see if there are staff records for the hospital in which she died.

[MercianSte]

 It is true that Jane may have been rushed into the hospital as this was during an epidemic, but her death certificate does say that she died of Variola Unvaccinated, so providing the information on the certificate is correct she was definitely not vaccinated unless I am reading that wrong.
I will see if there are any staff records available for the hospital and will have a look just in case.
 

[pharmaT]

I hadn't realised that she was noted as being unvaccinated.

You have piqued my interest, I hope you don't mind but I have been doing some background reading.  The hospital in which she died only started accepting patients on 31 Jan 1871, before it was fully complete.  This was because existing facilities could not cope with all the cases coming with the epidemic, which started in 1868.  People were being nursed at home (sometimes unofficially), in huts at other hospitals and isolation precautions that we would recognise today.

The compulsory vaccination Act had been passed in 1853 but this involved people being vaccinated as children.  By the time your Jane had died the experts had realised that the vaccine would not last more than 10 years and for working with smallpox then could not be considered to last more than 5 years and by 1871 were starting a programme of revaccinating staff ( possible reason for her being listed as unvaccinated as part of this work).  By the epidemic in 1880 staff were then routinely vaccinated every 2 to 3 years and a programme of disinfecting ambulances and compulsory bathing and uniform changing at end of shift were in place for staff.  This was not in place in 1871.  It wasn't really until 1900 that isolation hospitals were opened away from population centres after research into the 1880 epidemic confirmed growing suspicion that the disease could spread to surrounding populations via airbourne particals etc.

The incubation period is an average of 14 days and up to 17 days and death usually occurs on day 5 to 7 after onset so Jane must have contracted the illness relatively soon after the opening of the hospital.

I found this interesting but I am a geek: http://www.nhshistory.net/smallpox_and_fever_hospitals.htm

[pharmaT]

Just found another article that people had not had much faith in the vaccinations in the 1860s and in the epidemic that your Jane died they started recording whether people were vaccinated or not and this provided enough evidence to increase vaccination rates to significantly reduce transmission.