Community Nursing and Primary Healthcare in Twentieth-Century Britain (Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine)

This book takes a fresh look at community nursing history in Great Britain, examining the essentially generalist and low profile, domiciliary end of the professional nursing spectrum throughout the twentieth century. It charts the most significant changes affecting the nurse’s work on the district including compulsory registration for general nursing, changes in organization, training, conditions of service, and workload. A strong oral history component provides a unique insight into the professional images of district nursing and the complexities of inter- and intra-professional relationships as well as into the changing day-to-day working experiences of the district nurse at ‘grass-roots’ level. Use of oral history and records of individual nurses attempts to rectify the tendency of nursing history to view nurses as if they were a homogenous group of professionals, thereby recognizing the different experiences of nurses in different regions and environments. The book also considers the degree of influence of medically related technologies and of developments in drugs, materials, communications, and transport on the professional development of district nursing. The work addresses issues of gender relationships central to a nursing profession largely composed of women (throughout much of the period) working alongside a largely male-dominated medical profession. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 Preface......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 14 Glossary and Conventions......Page 16 Introduction......Page 18 Part I: The History of District Nursing......Page 32 1 Historical Trajectories: Background, c. 1850–1919......Page 34 2 What Became of the Lady? The Interwar Period, 1919–1939......Page 52 3 War to Welfare State, 1939–1948......Page 80 4 Changing Places, 1948–1979......Page 98 Part II: Themes and Issues......Page 122 5 Town Nurse, Country Nurse: District Nursing Landscape......Page 124 6 Technology, Treatment, and TLC......Page 152 7 Generalists and Generals: District Nursing Professionalisation......Page 168 8 Language of Caring: Care and Nurses’ Lives......Page 182 9 Portraits of a District Nurse......Page 204 10 Discussion and Conclusion......Page 218 Endnotes......Page 232 Sources and Bibliography......Page 262 Index......Page 278 Historical trajectories: c.1850-1919 What became of the lady? The inter-war period 1919-1939 War to welfare state: 1939-1948 Changing places: 1948-Project 2000 Town nurse, country nurse: district nursing landscape Technology, treatment, and TLC Generals and generalists Language of caring: care and nurses lives Portraits of a district nurse. This volume takes a look at community nursing history in Great Britain during the 20th-century. It examines the significant changes affecting the nurse's work on the district, including compulsory registration for general nursing, changes in organisation, training, conditions of service, and workload This book looks at community nursing history in Great Britain during the twentieth century to examine the significant changes affecting the nurse?s work on the district including compulsory registration for general nursing, changes in organisation, training, conditions of service and workload