Oxford Brookes is celebrating 125 Years of nurse education

Celebrating 13 decades of nurse education

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Welcome to the 125 Years of Nurse Education in Oxford celebration booklet This booklet details the last 13 decades of nurse education in Oxford and Swindon. We are grateful to the people who have taken time to share their experiences of nurse education.

The training and education of health care professionals has long been a cornerstone of life in Oxford and in the 20th and 21st Centuries Oxford Brookes University has played its own vital role in working with local partners to provide professional healthcare education.

Nurse training in Oxford can trace its beginnings back to 1782. Then a non-regulated training, the early beginnings of a formal nurse education, started in 1891 at the Radcliffe Infirmary on Woodstock Road.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank the following people or organisations for their help in compiling this booklet: DESIGNER ■■ Flora Hands, Carline Creative AUTHORS ■■ Xante Cummings ■■ Annie Thompson-Lynch ■■ Dr Liz Westcott THE RADCLIFFE GUILD OF NURSES – PERSONAL REMINISCENCES FROM: ■■ Rita Bayley

The records, many of which we have accessed to write this booklet, provide a fascinating history. Between 1921 and 1991, 7948 nurses’ names were recorded.

Nurse training continued at the Radcliffe Infirmary and in 1979 the John Radcliffe 2 site was opened and the ‘The School of Nursing’ transferred to this new site.

■■ Theresa Bentley

In the mid 1980s Malcolm Ross, then Chief Nursing Officer in Oxford, Pam Jones the Head of Nursing Education in Oxford entered into discussions with the then Vice Chancellor, Clive Booth and senior staff at Oxford Polytechnic. In 1989 this resulted with the traditional RGN training being replaced by a 4-year degree in nursing and the School of Health Care came into existence at the Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University. In 1999 a campus was opened in Ferndale, Swindon and an Adult Nursing programme was introduced, with Operating Department Practice following shortly after.

■■ Mary Dickman

In 2004 we were brought together from our 12 sites across Oxford to the newly acquired Milham Ford Girls School in Marston. At last the health and social work programmes were all on a site together. Health Care and Social Work joined with Biological and Medical Sciences and Psychology in 2011 to become The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

We hope you enjoy reading about our nursing history and we look forward to seeing you at the many events being organised during the year, please see page 38 for our celebration calendar.

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■■ Sue Bradshaw ■■ Nicky Brennan ■■ Anne Carter ■■ Mary Campbell ■■ June Fisher ■■ Eileen Forbes ■■ Isobel Gilles ■■ Anne Green ■■ Ann Pollard ■■ Joan Tree ■■ Pat Wilson ■■ Joan Winch ■■ Viv Wightman OTHER CONTRIBUTORS ■■ Graham Carter, Editor, Swindon Heritage ■■ Dr Ann Ewens, Oxford Brookes University ■■ Rachel Skittrall, Oxford Brookes University ■■ R obyn Thompson-Vango, Oxford Brookes University ■■ Jeffrey Wright, The Oxford Health Archive COVER PICTURES CLOCKWISE: Drawing by Coen Littleford, age 8; 1960s nurse dining room; Student nurse, Oxford Brookes University; 1930s nurse sitting room; Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Contents Introduction, Professor June Girvin

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1869-99 6 1900-09 8 1910-19 10 1920-29 12 Little people, big talent 14 1930-39 16 1940-49 18 Oxford nurses work across the globe

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1950-59 22 1960-69 24 1970-79 26 1980-89 28 Swindon’s medical heritage 30 1990-99 32 2000-16 34 Back in the day 36 Programme of events 38 Sources 39

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125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Celebrating 125 Years of Nurse Education in Oxford The anniversary of 125 years of nurse education Oxford is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate everything that was, is, and will be, nursing.

As the leader of a Faculty of Health and Life Sciences that educates future nurses as well as other health care professionals and biological scientists the chance to recall our past, reflect on our present and project our future in nurse education couldn’t be more appropriate.

Nursing is one of those professions that everyone thinks they know about and the fondness that the general population have for nurses is recognised and appreciated. Since the start of nurse education in Oxford 125 years ago people have expected warmth, compassion, kindness and a reassurance of safety. These remain key attributes of today’s nurses and will be key attributes into the future.

What has changed almost unimaginably in that 125 years is the scope of a nurse’s practice.

From fetching and carrying, following Dr’s orders, and interminable cleaning (which I remember as late as the 1970s) today’s nurses are more likely to be assessing patients and instigating care and treatment, prescribing medication, facilitating a multi-disciplinary – and often multiagency – team, educating patients and carers, supervising students, and undertaking their own research into areas of clinical need. All combined with those key attributes of warmth, compassion, kindness, efficiency and safety.

The future will bring even more changes to that scope of practice – the nurse as independent consultant, gateway to services, deliverer of complex care, collaborator with expert patients co-producing care packages with those who have long-term

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conditions and facilitating patients and carers through the increasing complexity of services. A digital expert, able to monitor and support remotely, engaging with higher education for other professionals and colleagues and developing clinical academic roles that push the boundaries of nursing care through research and innovation. Caring in highly technical and/or community scenarios and bringing compassion and warmth to both.

It is already a very challenging health care world for nurses and will continue to be challenging, exciting and rewarding in equal measure. Educating nurses is the best way to ensure the resilience that retains kindness and compassion, enhance the knowledge base that produces flexibility, competence and safety, and develop the confidence that leads to excellent clinical judgment and accountability.

The world-class health care services and the extraordinary academic environment that Oxford offers provides our student nurses with a unique learning experience that prepares them to face that challenging, exciting and rewarding future with skill and knowledge, underpinned, as always, by kindness, compassion and warmth.

It is my very great privilege to be a part of the past, present and future of nursing education in Oxford.

PROFESSOR JUNE GIRVIN PRO VICE CHANCELLOR AND DEAN, FACULTY HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES, OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

Professor Viv Bennett CBE CHIEF NURSE, PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND

I trained as a nurse and health visitor at the earlier versions of Oxford Brookes (Oxford School of Nursing and Oxford Polytechnic) and I have always been proud to say ‘I trained in Oxford’. In Oxford I learned the science and art of nursing and public health nursing - in part from my lecturers and books (in those days books!) and in huge part from patients, families and colleagues. I remember clearly as a student nursing Mr B an elderly ‘gentleman’ in every sense of the word who taught me about the importance of ‘know my story-know me’ and of maintaining the dignity of a dignified man. Of two babies, the birth of one and death of the other, who showed me the privilege of nursing at the best of times and the worst of times for families. A surgeon who gave me confidence and helped me be competent in theatre, and a family with two children with disabilities and extreme social disadvantage who showed me the courage that families show in adversity and taught me to be a much better health visitor.

In Oxford I first became interested in public health and children’s services which has lasted throughout my career.

Professor Viv Bennett CBE as a student nurse

I remember clearly as a student nursing Mr B an elderly ‘gentleman’ in every sense of the word who taught me about the importance of ‘know my story-know me’

Student nurses, 1970s www.brookes.ac.uk | 5

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1860-99

1861-65

1863

American Civil War between the Union and seceding Confederacy

First section of the London Underground opens

1877

1879

1880-81

1881

Thomas Edison invents the phonograph

Thomas Edison tests his first light bulb.

The First Boer War

First electrical power plant and grid in Godalming, Britain

Nursing is one of the oldest occupations associated with care of the sick. It was first mentioned, as a recognisable role, during the height of the Roman Empire, around 300 A.D. For many centuries that followed however, though both men and women were employed in a wide diversity of nursing situations, little is known about their daily work, learning or experience.

1857 Louis Pasteur identifies germs as cause of disease

By the 1800s this began to change, as advances in medicine generated an increasing recognition of the role of the nurse and the need for a better informed and disciplined nursing workforce. The first emergence of nurse training, as we would recognise it today, came in 1836 at the Deaconess Institute at Kaiserworth in Germany. This was an important influence on Florence Nightingale OM, RRC (pictured), who, following her experiences in the Crimea war of the 1850s, went on to not only revolutionise nursing by opening the first Nightingale nursing school in London in 1860, but also to influence hospital design, on the grounds that “the very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm”.

OXFORD’S FIRST HOSPITAL Oxford’s first hospital, the Radcliffe Infirmary, had opened in 1770, but for much of the 100 years that followed it was beset by problems, not least of which was the lack of will to develop any form of meaningful training for nurses. Though there was some bedside teaching for doctors there was nothing for nurses. Even as late as the 1870s the house surgeon described the nurses as ‘kind, intelligent, simple women of the superior servant class, without any pretension to being ladies’. This was a period when one woman was in charge of each ward and doing all the nursing and cleaning, including fetching the coal and lighting the fire. At night one nurse, untrained, looked after the whole hospital.

For nurses at this time hours were undoubtedly very long and pay and conditions poor. It is also likely that few taking the role of nurse, a role synonymous with that of servant, could read or write. There was an acknowledgment by the Governors of the Radcliffe Infirmary, as early at 1866 that ‘it is desirable that a system for training nurses be adopted’.

A Committee was even set up to draw up regulations for such training but opposition from the medical faculty, who thought that trained nurses might usurp medical students and possibly even themselves, meant that the idea did not translate into action. The need for trained nurses was nevertheless becoming increasingly evident and by 1883 ‘lady probationers’ were being accepted for training, though in reality there was little formal training available to them.

Their average age tended to be high; in 1899 it was 27years.

They would come on trial basis for a month and if considered suitable for training would be required to sign up to stay for 12 months; if they showed outstanding ability they might be invited to stay for a second year. Though the matrons of the time Miss Masson and her successor, Miss Watt, pressed for an extension of the training to three years, this did not happen until the twentieth century.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the number of nursing staff at the Infirmary had risen to about fifty, with a sister and one or two assistant nurses (who had some training) for each ward and some twenty-five probationers who moved from ward to ward. The hours were still long, holidays confined to 2 weeks; there is no mention of ‘days off’, though it is likely that discretionary days were given. It was a hard education...

“The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm”.

Florence Nightingale OM, RRC, 1859

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1865

1869

Lewis Carroll publishes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Dmitri Mendeleev created the Periodic table

1888

1889

Jack the Ripper murders occur in Whitechapel, London

Eiffel Tower is inaugurated in Paris

1867 Joseph Lister develops the use of antiseptic surgical methods and publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery

1879 First vaccine developed for cholera

1881 First vaccine developed for anthrax by Louis Pasteur

1882 Koch discovers the TB bacillus

MARY SEACOLE Florence Nightingale was not the only pioneer to make her mark on the care and well-being of patients during the Crimea war. Mary Seacole’s reputation rivalled that of Florence Nightingale.

Though not a nurse in the formal sense, she provided invaluable convalescence and care to soldiers behind the Crimea lines by establishing the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide ‘a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers’. Known as ‘Mother Seacole’ she also visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded.

Dr Liz Westcott DEPARTMENT HEAD NURSING, OXFORD BROOKES

I started my career as a nurse on a sunny, cold crisp day in October 1978 at the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1978. I was excited and anxious about what the future would hold but 37 years later I couldn’t have made a better choice of career and have loved my journey as a nurse, nurse educator and nurse leader. I have worked in neurology and neurosurgery as a staff nurse, then ward sister and senior nurse and met and cared for wonderful patients, relatives and staff. I have always loved teaching and was privileged to be appointed in 1989 as one of the first Lecturer Practitioners in the country. I moved to Oxford Brookes University as a senior lecturer in 1998 and my current role is Department Head of Nursing.

The essence of nursing will always be the same; to care for people when they are in most need and to be there to offer care, support and education.

Technology has changed immeasurably and people have more access now to information about their conditions than ever before but nurses are still there to support, reassure, guide people lead inter professional teams to get the best health outcomes possible.

I have always loved sharing knowledge with nurses and my Department Head role is a great way to influence the next generation of nurses and to ensure they share the same values 1890 that nurses have Emil von Behring always held. We are discovers on the brink of one of antitoxins and the biggest changes in develops tetanus and diphtheria nurse education with vaccines the introduction of student loans and it’s an exciting time to be planning for the future.

1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X rays

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125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1900-09 As the 19th century closed and the 20th progressed, five words would characterise the lived experience of the population; Urbanization, New Technologies, Education, Mass Culture, Consumerism.

Social roles would also expand as fundamental attitudes towards children, education, gender roles, and social status shifted.

1901 Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups

1900s

1901

L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Queen Victoria dies.

Edward VII becomes king

NURSING RECOGNISED AS A PROFESSION For many entering the 20th century however, change was still a long way off. Of Britain’s population of 36 million, 1.5 million were servants; more than worked on the land or in factories. Working conditions were generally very poor and hours long; it was not uncommon for children to be working at 12 years old. Basic needs were often not met and many inner city areas experienced appalling conditions; malnutrition among poor children was endemic. Although improvements had occurred in medicine and surgery, practices could still be brutal and primitive. For every disease on the wane - such as smallpox and cholera - another was on the rise, including alcoholism and venereal diseases.

Achieving recognition for nursing as a profession, though vigorously pursued by some, was still a struggle and progress was slow. Success would not be achieved until much later in the century and then only as part of a wider effort to improve the legal, professional and economic status of women in general.

At the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1900, for its twenty five probationers, life was arduous and restricted. Board and lodging had to be paid for; there was no salary in the first year.

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1903

1903

Women’s Social and Political Union is formed to campaign for women’s suffrage

The Wright brothers fly the first powered, heavier-than-air plane

Meals were adequate but uninteresting with shepherd’s pie and milk puddings being staple fare; fruit and salads rarely appeared on the menu. Working hours started with breakfast at 06.30 and ended with supper at 20.30 followed by bed and lights out at 22.00.

The organisation of work on the wards was strictly hierarchical and for first year probationers, their place was for the most part ‘under the sluice sink’. They could also expect to be given the most unattractive jobs by anyone senior to them. Each trained nurse and probationer had their allocated tasks and had to keep strictly to them. Conduct was expected to be exemplary, diligent, attentive and obedient.

REWARDING SUCCESS Successful probationers did receive an award at the end of their first year, but only if a nurse showed outstanding ability would she be invited to stay for a second year. If this were offered she would receive ten pounds and compensation (usually money, received for services given) and a more complete award at the end of her training. Matrons Miss Masson and her successor, Miss Watt, pressed for the abolition of this ‘premium system’ as it was known and for the extension of the training period to three years. It was not until 1909 that it finally ceased and salaries were paid to nurses in training; five pounds in their first year, ten in their second.

The rules at the Radcliffe, set up in the 19th century, remained in place into the early twentieth century... “You shall kindly treat the patients under your care, as well as keeping them sweet and clean in their persons, bedding and every other respect, as in giving them their meat and drink in a comfortable manner...and you are expected to show courtesy and politeness to all the friends of the patients and other visitors to the ward.” Gossip and loud conversation in corridors, wards and kitchens, was described as ‘undesirable’; punctuality was praised as a major virtue, and the nurse was urged to “take daily outdoor exercise as a means of maintaining good health”.

It was still hard education, but in the first decade of the 20th century, a potentially healthy one of high ideals!

“You shall kindly treat the patients under your care, as well as keeping them sweet and clean in their persons, bedding and every other respect, as in giving them their meat and drink in a comfortable manner...”

Paul Ong SENIOR LECTURER, OXFORD BROOKES

I completed my nurse training in 1993 at Charing Cross Hospital in London. This left me with very fond memories, not least because this is where I met my wife! It also exposed me to a range of diverse cultural experiences which have proved invaluable over the course of my nursing career.

My first post was at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford within the Neurosurgical Unit which proved exciting, challenging and very rewarding, being at the forefront of major advances in neurosurgical procedures and interventions around subarachnoid haemorrhage, embolisations and epilepsy. I then took up a post in gastrointestinal surgery where my interest in Inflammatory Bowel Disease developed. I was then seconded to a teaching post at Oxford Brookes University which translated into a lecturer and then senior lecturer post. During the early part of my teaching career I completed an MSc in Higher Professional Education and alongside this I have been heavily involved in the development of a series of Clinical Pocket Reference books for Nurses and we are about to publish our third edition this year. Most of my teaching interests at Brookes have revolved around clinical physiology and pathophysiology.

I feel very privileged to have carried out all of my clinical nursing in Oxford. I was particularly inspired by the Primary Nursing Model pioneered in Oxford which helped me develop the strong sense of patent-centred care and the importance of the therapeutic relationship as a basis for high quality care. Many of the values and beliefs I developed during my early years of clinical practice remain with me today and still guide me in my professional role At Brookes I have enjoyed a great spirit of camaraderie. What I value most as a senior lecturer is having the freedom to be innovative, for example incorporating technological advances into teaching as a means to enhance the learner experience.

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125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1910-19 This period started to change how nurses were being trained and improve the perception of the value of trained nurses.

In 1916 the College of Nursing (becoming the Royal College of Nursing in 1928) was founded and it has now become the largest professional nursing union in the world.

In 1917 a standardised curriculum was established by the National League for Nursing Education and in 1918 the Sister Tutor section was founded.

In 1919 the Nurse Registration Act was passed, it had taken 30 years to get through parliament. This act establishes a register for nurses, and sets standards for training, examinations and registration.

1913 Dr. Paul Dudley White pioneers the use of the electrocardiograph - ECG

1910

1912

George V becomes king

End of the Chinese Empire; Republic of China established

TRAINING AT THE RADCLIFFE INFIRMARY During the First World War the 3rd Southern General Hospital was set up at the Examination Schools and Somerville College, with 1,000 beds. The Radcliffe Infirmary was also used as a hospital with 64 beds for injured soldiers, housed in hutted wards, staffed from the Infirmary. When the soldiers arrived at the railway station they were taken to various places around Oxford that had been set up as hospitals and some were admitted to the Radcliffe Infirmary. There were also marquees erected in the hospital grounds, which were used as wards.

Miss Agnes Watt was appointed Matron in 1897 the nurse training school had a good reputation under her direction and she shaped the formal training of nurses. The distinction between fee paying and free place trainees was bought to an end. During the First World War she asked the injured soldiers in her hospital to record their thoughts in a book which remains today in the Oxfordshire Health Archive.

The injured men came from the UK, France and Belgium.

It took weeks for them to get to the Radcliffe Infirmary from the battlefields and many lost their lives on the way as a result of infection. For example, one man injured on the 24th of October arrived at the Radcliffe Infirmary on the 11th of November, a journey taking 3 weeks.

The soldiers were very grateful for the care they received and they were all relieved to be back in England. One solider recalls an “injury to a nerve in my arm which was required to be treated with electricity… the first time I received the treatment I was conscious of a slight relief when one comes to think that I had not closed my eyes since I was wounded despite liberal doses of morphia. You will have a slight idea of how grateful I was…I will never forget one of the happiest times of my life”. He was a patient for 6 weeks and came from the Sherwood Foresters Regiment.

Another soldier said “if I kept writing until doomsday… I should not be able to praise both hospital, the Matron and nurses too highly…you get well so quick with the care taken of you” Another said “ I was ignorant of what the results of science, careful nursing and patience could do for me”

Radcliffe Infirmary nurses with Matron Miss Agnes Watt, 1910

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EDITH CAVELL The hospital lost staff during the First World War who joined up to serve in the armed forces. In one of the most famous events of that conflict, Edith Cavell, a London trained nurse, was executed in Belgium in 1915 for treason after aiding the escape of up to 200 Allied soldiers to the Netherlands.

Pleas for clemency stressed that she had nursed men from both sides of the conflict.

1914-18

1917

First World War

Russian Revolution ends the Russian Empire

INFLUENZA PANDEMIC Between January 1918 and December 1920 there was also an influenza pandemic and 500 million people across the world lost their lives. This was 3-5% of the world’s population. It predominantly affected previously healthy young adults. To maintain morale, wartime censors minimised the early reports of the flu pandemic and the mortality rates. However, the media could report on the situation in Spain, so a false impression was given that Spain was especially badly hit and as a result it became known as Spanish flu.

Exterior of a children’s ward

“If I kept writing until doomsday… I should not be able to praise both hospital, the Matron and nurses too highly…you get well so quick with the care taken of you” First World War soldier

Kate Boulter NURSING DEGREE GRADUATE, OXFORD BROOKES My name is Kate Boulter and I graduated with a nursing degree from Oxford Brookes in 2001. Since then my career has taken many turns beginning with my first position as a staff nurse on the Renal Ward at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. After a few months at the Churchill I moved to the United States where I worked on the Solid Organ Transplant Unit at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. I stayed there for about 7 years and during that time worked as a staff nurse, lead nurse and case manager. After that I worked at the University of Nebraska College of Nursing managing a mobile nursing unit and took nursing students into low-income communities to provide health screenings.

I really missed being a bedside nurse so after 2 years returned to a general medical surgical floor as a staff nurse but soon became a lead nurse and then the clinical educator.

In addition to all that, and after working at Nebraska Medicine for about 2 years a new unit opened -The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. This is a negative pressure unit with 5 rooms, 10 beds and was the largest of only 3 units like it in the United States. It was designed to care for patients with highly infectious diseases (HID) like Ebola Virus. The staff employed on this unit work in primary positions elsewhere in the hospital or the university and only work on the unit if there is a patient with a HID. I began as a staff nurse but soon became the lead RN coordinating staff training, developing protocols, holding staff meetings and many other responsibilities in addition to what I was doing in my primary positions.

In 2014 we received our first patient; a medical missionary evacuated from Liberia with Ebola Virus.

Witnessing our first patient recover from a deadly disease was one of the most rewarding experiences in my career and so was seeing the staff work together as team to provide care for our patients. I’m extremely proud of them.

I was promoted to the Nurse Manager for the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and in addition to managing the unit am currently traveling to conferences throughout the United States to talk about our experience. I’m also part of a team of amazing professionals that will teach others how to do what we did in Nebraska.

The team and I have received many accolades and awards, most recently I was awarded the ‘Positive Image of Nursing’ award by the Nebraska Nurses Association and a distinguished service award from the Nebraska Infection Control Network.

My daughter has decided to follow my career path and graduated from Clarkson College in May. On her pinning day she chose me to ‘pin her’ and I proudly wore my Oxford Brookes pin for the occasion.

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125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1920-29 During the 1920s nurse training became increasingly standardised and following the Nurses Act 1919, the General Nursing Council (GNC) was the body established to administer and monitor nurses.

It kept the register of trained nurses from 1921 until 1973, and produced an annual register of all trained nurses. In 1921 the Radcliffe Infirmary Nursing Committee Report stated that there were 54 Sisters and Nurses in the hospital, 40 were probationers and the report estimated that 80 were required. It was recommended that 18 was the age at which training could start, so that girls could be attracted from school.

The GNC recommended starting a ‘preliminary school’ to teach the basics outside of the hospital, a course lasting 9 weeks, and to have 2 intakes per year.

Miss Bigger (who was trained at St Thomas’s and was said to have swept into the Radcliffe Infirmary like a north east wind) was then appointed Matron at the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1921. She laid the foundations of the School of Nursing. She was an able organiser, strict disciplinarian, organised the curriculum and managed it in line with the new national nurse education standards, as laid down by the GNC. The Radcliffe Infirmary wished to become an approved institution for the training of nurses. It achieved this ambition in 1922 when Miss West Watson became the first Sister Tutor.

1920

1921

Bubonic Plague in India

‘Chanel No. 5’ perfume is created by Coco Chanel

NURSE TRAINING BEGINS AT MANOR HOUSE Nurses who were starting their training were called probationers and wore mauve uniforms; they started at Manor House in Headington where they had lectures and practical nursing demonstrations on a dummy before going onto the wards at the Radcliffe Infirmary. They were issued with ‘charts’ to record the nursing skills they had been taught and practiced. As a junior nurse they had to undertake cleaning of the wards and there was an inspection of dusters called the ‘rag parade’. On successful completion of the first year a black belt was awarded, and cuffs were worn on the sleeves.

Once nurses were working on the wards all additional lectures were undertaken in the nurses’ off duty time. The duty time was 8am till 9pm with 2.5-3 hours off per day and one day off a fortnight. The nurses were given 2 weeks annual leave a year and night duty was in blocks of 3 months or longer.

From 1924 at the end of the training period medals were awarded for the best students. They were gold, silver and bronze medals, but with the formation of the Radcliffe Guild of Nurses in 1925 it was decided to use the bronze medal as the hospital badge. All nurses who successfully completed their training were given a bronze badge. The first gold medal was awarded to Lucy Ottley in 1924.

THE RADCLIFFE GUILD OF NURSES The Radcliffe Guild of Nurses was proposed in 1924 and formed in 1925 with 77 names on the register and a shilling subscription. The aim being to unite all those who had trained at the Radcliffe Infirmary and now Oxford Brookes University; annual reunions were established and continue to this day.

The Guild produces an annual magazine to keep members in touch. The Guild also provides welfare assistance for members and bursaries for pre and post graduate nurses, who trained in Oxford, through its charity - The Anne Harrold Radcliffe Guild of Nurses Charitable Trust.

1921 Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets

1923

Nurses sitting room, 1920s

First vaccine developed for diphtheria. 1926 for whooping cough and 1927 for tuberculosis and tetanus

1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

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1924

1929

Frozen food is introduced

by Clarence Birdseye in the USA

Wall Street crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression

All nurses ‘lived in’ a nurses home and Matron was in ‘loco parentis’ taking the place of 1921 parents for nurses who were under the age of consent which Earle Dickson was then 21. Nurses had Invented the to be in the nurse’s home by Band-Aid 10pm, and their behaviour was monitored by Matron. There was a very Christian atmosphere on the wards with daily prayers and chapel was compulsory each evening for those nurses not on duty.

All hospitals were voluntary/private organisations at this time. Local people could pay subscriptions in order to use the hospital if they needed to. The nurses had to undertake regular stock checks of ward equipment and breakages had to be paid for.

The nursing profession was hard physical work with long hours and little free time, routine and discipline were strongly adhered to. The allocation of work was strictly hierarchical and all nurses had their allotted tasks and ward sisters were known not by their names but by the name of their wards.

Richard Adu Gyamfi ADULT NURSING STUDENT

Going to Oxford Brookes University to get my Bsc Adult Nursing qualification was a ‘no-brainer’. Prior to choosing Oxford Brookes University, I conducted my own research about other universities, and found that academically and socially, Oxford Brookes University to be among the very best!

Oxford is a great city with diverse culture and age groups and I love being a student nurse here.

Students get support throughout their academic work, placements and even financially. Although I am a first year student, my confidence in practise is increasing every day. This is because it is a duty not just to provide care to clients, but also to undertake care with evidence based practice.

Ward sisters were known not by their names but by the name of their wards.

Isobel Porter, age 6

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125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Little people, big talent

Some of the children showing their drawing entries at the drawing competition award ceremonies held at Ferndale Campus, Swindon (left) and Headington Hill Hall, Oxford (right) The winners of a children’s drawing competition celebrating nursing education were announced at two special award ceremonies held

by Oxford Brookes University in Oxford and Swindon on 9th and 10th September 2015.

The University’s Department of Nursing organised a drawing competition to mark the start of the celebrations for the anniversary of 125 years of nurse education.

Pupils from Oxford primary schools (entries received from St Michael’s CE Aided Primary, St John Fisher Catholic Primary School and New Marston Primary School) and from Ferndale Community Primary School, Swindon were asked to draw what they think a modern-day nurse does.

The judging panel, which was made up of academics and administration staff from Oxford Brookes and local NHS Trust representatives picked five winning entries in total across the four schools and four age groups. Representatives from Health Education Thames Valley and the local NHS Trusts were also in attendance at the ceremonies which took place at Headington Hill Hall in Oxford and the University’s Ferndale campus in Swindon.

The winning entries. Each drawing is shown in more detail throughout this booklet – clockwise from top left: Coen Littleford (front cover); Finn Kopp (page 20); Patrycja Wieckowska (page 32 ); Isobel Porter (page 13); Sinead Woodley (page 22)

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THE WINNERS WERE: ■■ I sobel Porter, age 6, New Marston Primary School ■■ F inn Kopp, age 8, St Michael’s CE Aided Primary (pictured far right) ■■ S inead Woodley, age 11, St John Fisher Catholic Primary School ■■ C oen Littleford, age 8, Ferndale Community Primary School ■■ P atrycja Wieckowska, age 9, Ferndale Community Primary School, Swindon

Clair Merriman PRINCIPAL LECTURER PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE SKILLS

I started my RGN in 1989 at the Royal Berkshire School of Nursing and Midwifery, and was part the last apprenticeship cohort before Project 2000 was introduced.

I came to Oxford post registration to work in the neuroscience unit and undertook all of my post registration courses at Oxford Brookes University, whilst working part time and having a family. However, each time I completed a course the skills and knowledge I had developed enabled me to apply for a promotion.

I completed the post experience courses in neuroscience and mentorship and was appointed into a practice education post on the neuroscience unit in Oxford. I have always valued knowledge and seek to constantly improve and this led me to continue to study then gaining a degree in critical care nursing. This then also opened doors to where I wanted to go into education. I was appointed to the post of lecturer in clinical skills at Oxford Brookes University in 1993 and soon after started my Masters in Higher Professional Education. On completion my role was changed to a Faculty wide role where I now lead on clinical skills and simulation based education for all health care programmes in the Faculty. I am also executive member of Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) and leading on nursing and medical joint simulation.

“The competition has been a fantastic way of kicking off our 125 years of nurse education celebrations which we will be celebrating throughout 2016’’.

Dr Liz Westcott, Head of the Department of Nursing, Oxford Brookes University, pictured above with competition winner, Isobel Porter

I am now pursuing a career in health related research with research around collaborative practice and how it impacts on patient safety, with my PhD looking at ward rounds in Adult Critical Care Unit (ACCU) in order to improve patient safety and efficient use of staff time Who would have thought commencing my neuroscience course as a part time staff nurse and mum of two children would have led to this? It has shown me that by determination and hard work you can achieve your goals and improve patient care and nurse education.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 15

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION

1930-39

1931

1936

Floods in China kill up to 2.5 million people

Beginning of the Spanish Civil War

The 1930s are remembered as the decade of mass unemployment, but by 1938 it had fallen to 10%.

For those with a job, living standards rose significantly.

Slums were cleared to make way for council homes and by 1939, about 27% of the population owned their own home. By 1933 half the households in Britain had a radio. Some previous luxuries became common place.

Sales of ice cream boomed in the 1930s and many new kinds of confectionery were introduced such as Areo, Kit Kat, Maltesers, Milky Bar, Milky Way, Mars Bar, Penguins, Rolo, Smarties, First vaccine and Whole Nut. Poverty had not disappeared by developed any means, but by 1936 for typhus just fewer than 4% were living at survival level.

1937

Nurses library, 1930s

Now I should like some kind friend to come forward and give us a swimming bath.

Miss Sparks, Matron

16 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

Radcliffe nurses in training, 1936

GOOD TRAINING REPUTATION Medicine and surgery had also taken many strides forward.

In 1935, nearly 3000 operations were performed at the Infirmary with a mortality of less than 5%. The Infirmary also saw increases in the number of nurses, trained and in training.

The three year course of training was well established and Radcliffe nurses were entering for the Preliminary and Final State examination. The number of entrants to the training school was still small, some 40-50 and high wastage was high, but the hospital had begun to gain a reputation for good training. For junior nurses their experience was still characterised by a good deal of scrubbing, dusting and polishing and attendance at lectures took up part of their daily off-duty period. Lecture notes had to be written up and handed in for correction and marking. Writing up was not popular among those that found it difficult, but it did serve to improve their written patient reports.

Salary for first year probationers was £20, with free board and lodging, uniform and laundering. Aprons were starched and starched collars and cuffs were worn by all nurses until the shortage of laundering materials during the war years of 1938-45 brought about their very welcome abandonment.

Significantly improved living conditions were provided by a new nurses’ home, built in 1932-33. Two tennis courts also were available to them. Miss Sparks, Matron, writing in the Guild Magazine observed “Now I should like some kind friend to come forward and give us a swimming bath”. Sadly, that ‘kind friend’ never appeared.

OXFORD EYE HOSPITAL Despite difficulties of insufficient funding and staffing, the Oxford Eye Hospital, which had opened in 1886, was also steadily increasing its work and achieving high training standards; lectures on general nursing were being given by the matron and on ophthalmology by the house surgeon.

The Eye Hospital probationers were mainly girls too young to

1937

1939

Japanese invasion of China

Nazi invasion of Poland triggers the beginning of the Second World War

enter the school of a general hospital, when at eighteen, they went on to the Radcliffe Infirmary or to some other hospital, they found their early training they had had proved to be of great value. From 1935, for several years, second year nurses from the Radcliffe Infirmary went to the Eye Hospital for two week periods to get some ophthalmic experience. This compliment of trainees was increased when, in 1938, midwives in training came to get experience in the care of babies with ophthalmia neonatorum (neonatal conjunctivitis).

RISING COSTS In the 1930s, rising costs were affecting everyone. The Radcliffe Guild of Nurses, formed in 1925, increased the joining cost to half-a-crown, in 1932. The familiar blue book cover had appeared in 1931. The Guild was going from strength to strength, a reflection perhaps both of the diversity of onward career paths and the desire to stay in touch as the stability of the age became more uncertain.

By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 the Radcliffe Infirmary, together with the maternity department, Sunnyside and the Osler Pavilion had increased to just over 500 beds with a nursing staff of 250, of which about 100 were nurses in training. It was still not easy for nurses in training, but conditions were much improved. Some traditional skills however, remained at a premium. Every trainee had to be able to make a many tailed bandage and pad and splint, so those who were neat and skilled at sewing were very much in demand by their less accomplished friends.

Dr Helen Walthall PROGRAMME LEAD ADVANCED AND SPECIALIST PRACTICE

I am the Leader of the Post Graduate Course Team in Nursing. I feel that the knowledge and expertise of nursing is essential to ensure optimal patient care and outcomes and develop evidence based provision. The education of post registration nurses is an essential component of this.

Along their life-long learning journey nurses need to be equipped with attributes to enable them to question, direct and lead practice. They need to be able to make evidence based decisions to develop themselves, practice and ultimately nursing. A key tool within this is for nurses to be supported in a collaborative environment which facilitates their learning and is delivered by nurses who are clinical and educational role models. Therefore, it is essential for me as the leader of the team to develop and nurture these skills and attributes to ensure nurses are given every opportunity to become role models and leaders themselves.

In 2015, I was part of the team who won the Brookes People Award for Confidence.

Sir William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), and the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth , The Queen Mother) opening the new Radcliffe Maternity Home, 1932 www.brookes.ac.uk | 17

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1940-49 This was the decade of the Second World War, the first clinical use of Penicillin, the first Accident Service as opposed to Casualty Department, and the start of the NHS.

1944

1945

The Siege of Leningrad ends with Soviet victory after over a million deaths

End of the Second World War

THE FIRST DOSE OF PENICILLIN The first dose of penicillin was given intravenously by a doctor in 1941, but the first dose of intramuscular penicillin was given

by Nurse Muriel Flack (nee Tindle). It was a bright yellow oily fluid and it had to be warmed before being drawn up into a glass syringe, the syringe was boiled by the nurse before use to sterilise it and nurses had to wear gowns and masks when drawing it up.

The Americans who built the Churchill Hospital in Headington for their injured service men, gifted it to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1946. They left everything behind except the people. The junior nurses were sent to clean it before patients were admitted.

NURSE TRAINING MEMOIRS The nurses who trained in the 1940s remember their training with affection and below is a selection of some of their memories.

■■ Matron was in loco parentis and one nurse remembers being summoned to Matron’s office when she was seen speaking to a young man, who later became her husband. “Matron was very clear that I should inform my parents otherwise Matron would inform them”.

■■ The work was hard, the hours long. Patients were washed, fed and beds made by 10am prior to doctors and matrons rounds. There were no bed screens, the screens were wooden and had no wheels so had to be manhandled into place. The wards were cold and nurses had to fill stone hot water bottles and do hot water bottle rounds, these sometimes froze on cold nights. They also had to lay up trolleys for all procedures, sterilising their own instruments and dressings, there were no disposable single use items.

■■ The hospital was still a private organisation and stock takes were a regular occurrence. One nurse was called back after her night duty as a tea spoon was missing; she found it in a patient’s locker.

Nurses also undertook pressure area care rounds, observation rounds, bed pan rounds; these were china and had to be cleaned after use. Sputum pots were also collected and cleaned in the sluice room.

Breakages, usually thermometers, had to be paid for.

■■ Students were given a hardback book, in which they kept notes of the lectures they attended and this was marked by Sister Tutor each week. Each ward also had a ‘work chart’ with all the procedures nurses had to learn, when sister was satisfied the nurse knew the procedure she signed it off. Students also went on a tour of a sewage farm, water works, and a diary, cycling there with Sister Tutor. There were exams to be passed which included an oral exam with a consultant as part of the final exams.

18 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

■■ The uniform was a war time utility green dress with no cuffs or starched collars. Dresses were worn for a week and a clean apron was used daily. The dress had to come below the knee and there were different linen caps to differentiate the year groups.

■■ There were ‘tonsil drives’ where the children were bought in on a bus, had a tonsillectomy, stayed the night, then they were given toast for breakfast before going home. However, tonsillectomies would not be done if there were cases of polio in the hospital.

■■ Cronshaw Ward had an iron lung, oxygen and a suction machine as it was where the most seriously ill patients were nursed, a forerunner of intensive care. Patients with tuberculosis were nursed on wards with open balconies and in bad weather their beds were covered with water proof sheets.

■■ One nurse remembers being allocated to the theatres at the Churchill Hospital. She had a talent for drawing and was asked by the surgeon to draw his operations as there was a scarcity of cameras after the war.

■■ The nurses were not allowed to marry during their training, no men were allowed into their rooms and they were not allowed to go to the local pubs or dance halls. The senior porter organised dances and they were by invitation only. However, on VE night they were allowed out without a pass!

Patient first, self last and no task beneath us if it is for the patients’ benefit.

Radcliffe Infirmary ethos

1947

1949

Independence of India and Pakistan

Creation of NATO

Juliet Bostwick PROGRAMME LEAD FOR NURSING, OXFORD BROOKES My name is Juliet Bostwick and since 2005 I have been the Programme Lead for Nursing at Oxford Brooke’s University. I qualified as a Nurse in 1980, having completed my training at The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter, Devon.

Penicillin

THE SCHOOL OF NURSING The Radcliffe Infirmary had a good reputation for its School of Nursing, its ethos being – ‘patient first, self last and no task beneath us if it is for the patients’ benefit’. Student nurses were paid a salary of about £5 a month, ‘lived in’ and had all meals and laundry provided. Rationing was in place and they had to collect their own rations of sugar and butter. They spent 3 months in the Preliminary Patient, age 16 Training School (PTS) at Manor House in Headington.

They learnt practical skills by using a dummy or each other. Sister Tutor also used to administer cod liver oil and malt on a Friday to all the student nurses! After this they were allocated to wards and undertook lectures in their off duty time. Night duty was still 3 months at a time, and 3rd year nurses undertook three lots of nights and still had to attend lectures after their night shift. The shift pattern was 8-1.30pm, 1.30-9pm and 1½ days off per week.

I enjoy the personal contact, as the nurses know my name, and make it their job to find out more about me as a person.

All the nurses are friendly, and helpful.

1940-49 Howard Florey carried out the first ever clinical trials in 1941 of penicillin at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford on a Postmaster from Wolvercote near Oxford.

1945 First vaccine developed for influenza

After working for 2 years in the Trauma unit in Exeter, I then moved to Switzerland and had 3 exciting years working in a local hospital in Nyon, a small town on the shores of Lake Geneva. I would certainly advocate the merits of nursing overseas to gain experience of caring for people from different cultures, as well as learning another language! I frequently confused the words for bedpan & flower vase (le vase or la vase) - with very amusing consequences!

In 1986 I returned to the UK and undertook a specialist Neuroscience Nursing course at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. From then, my career progressed within neurosciences and I eventually became the Senior Nurse in charge of the Neuroscience unit in Cambridge. It was during my time here that I also decided to undertake a Master’s degree in Health Sciences at Birmingham University. I am currently studying for a professional doctorate in education, for completion in 2017.

Nursing people diagnosed with serious neurological disorders has always been my passion. I relished the challenge of caring for and supporting patients and their families at some of the worst times of their lives, for example following serious head injury or cerebral haemorrhage, as well as providing care for people with chronic neurological conditions such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. It was humbling to see the courage of patients and their families when faced with difficult decisions about their care and treatment. Over a period of 15 years in neuroscience nursing I also had the privilege of witnessing the development of cutting edge treatments for certain neurological conditions, for example the treatment of cerebral aneurysms.

In my current role as Programme Lead I am responsible for the education of over 400 pre-registration nursing students and the management of a team of about 30 academic staff. In 2015 I was part of the team who won the Oxford Brooke’s People Award for Confidence. I strongly believe in the power of education to change people’s views and opinions and enjoy supporting nursing students to go on that journey of development and discovery and the opportunity to shape the future nursing workforce. It has been an honour and a privilege to be part of the nursing profession, a career choice which I have never regretted.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 19

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Finn Kopp, age 8 20 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

Oxford nurses work across the globe We are very proud that nurses who have trained in Oxford are making an important contribution to the health and welfare of people throughout the world.

We have faculty nursing staff that teach internationally in Hong Kong and support a franchise in Nairobi to deliver a Palliative Care programme. We also have student exchanges with a range of European countries and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Many Oxford nurses have also joined the Navy, Army and RAF.

Jo Hobbs CHILD MASTERS STUDENT

Nursing provides an amazing and extremely rewarding opportunity to engage with people and make a real difference to their lives. Few other professions offer a greater sense of fulfilment – knowing that your care and compassion can support a patient and their family when they are most vulnerable, helping them to overcome the seemingly insurmountable. Every patient is unique with their own story and one of the challenges of nursing is building a relationship with your patients to deliver the best personalised care possible. I have learnt so much within my first year, from my peers, patients, lecturers and mentors in practice and cannot wait to see what I continue to learn and experience over the next two years in Oxford and into the future.

Examples of countries where our graduates have worked: Africa

Denmark

Iran

Mexico

Spain

Australia

Egypt

Iraq

New Zealand

Sweden

Bermuda

Falkland Islands

Italy

Norway

Switzerland

Brazil

Greece

Kenya

Romania

Tanzania

Burma

Hong Kong

Malaya

Russia

Uganda

Canada

India

Malta

South Africa

USA www.brookes.ac.uk | 21

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1950-59 The NHS had come into being on 5th July 1948. This was a momentous, root and branch change in health care, so the 1950s were a period of settling into the new structure and also of recovery after the enormous upheaval of the Second World War. Great advances were being made in medical research, such as the link between smoking and lung cancer.

Social change and freedoms for nurses however, still lay some way ahead. Matron had control over the private and working lives of nurses and students and getting married meant leaving nursing.

1952

1958

Queen Elizabeth II becomes Monarch of the Commonwealth realms

Great Chinese Famine

NEW SYLLABUS FOR GENERAL TRAINING The Nurses Act 1949 had strengthened the educational John Hopps role the General Nursing Council invented the (GNC) and in 1952 a new first cardiac syllabus for general training pacemaker was completed and approved.

A reduced post war workforce resulted in the government looking overseas to help boost nurse numbers, which brought a large arrival of nurses from the Caribbean.

1950

Patients’ expected nurses to be involved in hygiene, nutrition and care of the environment. Certainly, nurses dealt with many different problems, such as the London Smog that caused approximately 4000 deaths in 1951.

In Oxford in the 1950s there were 500 beds at the Radcliffe Infirmary, and the Matron, Miss Preddy, was in charge of

1953 James Watson and Francis Crick work on the structure of the DNA molecule

1954 Dr. Joseph E. Murray performs the first kidney transplant

Sinead Woodley, age 11

22 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

1959 Cuban Revolution.

World population reaches 3 billion

Professor Catherine Stoddart

nurse training. It was a four year training; 3 years as a student and 1 year as a staff nurse. The 8 week preliminary training at the Manor House, now in the grounds of the John Radcliffe site, consisted of learning how to apply leeches, coddle eggs, make calves foot jelly and test urine using a Bunsen burner, as well as the theory and practice of nursing, anatomy, physiology and hygiene. New students were still however, well acquainted with the sluice, where among other duties they had to count dirty laundry before bagging, sometimes by candle light if there was a power cut!

Night duty consisted of an arduous 3 months of nights split into 10 nights on and 4 off and 11 on and 3 off.

I have had the privilege of being the Chief Nurse Oxford University Hospitals Trust since April 2014. I was previously the Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer of Western Australia, where I held positions in both the Australian State and Commonwealth Governments.

Life at the Radcliffe was not without incident. On Sunday 20 November 1955 a train derailed between Didcot and Steventon. 11 people died and there were 157 casualties. Many were brought to the Radcliffe Infirmary and theatres and outpatients were cleared to care for the injured. Today we would recognise this as a ‘Major Incident Plan’ in action.

In my nursing career I have worked in executive management roles and senior clinical nursing positions across Tertiary, General and Rural Australia including being the Executive Director of Nursing across WA Country Health Service and the Regional Director for the Kimberley.

CHIEF NURSE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

I aim to ensure all health professionals contribute to healthcare improvement and high quality care for our community.

I believe it is essential to build nurses who have contemporary expertise, skills and professionalism in order to deliver excellent care that is world class.

I have developed the Nursing and Midwifery Strategy for OUHT which is aiming to achieve international recognition as a Magnet Trust by 2018. I am passionate about ensuring that Oxford is the city where nurses and midwives can have a thriving professional career while delivering excellent care to patients and the community.

Above is a 1950s set photo taken after their 3 month Preliminary Training School. Below is the set reunion in 2011 when they celebrated 55 years of nursing.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 23

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1960-69 If the Fifties were a decade lived in black and white, then the Sixties was one lived in Technicolour.

The ‘Swinging Sixties’ as they are known, are widely recognised as a defining decade for Britain; full of freedom, hope and promise. For the teenagers of the 1960s this would be the first without conscription. The parents of the Sixties teenage generation had spent their youth fighting for their lives in the Second World War and wanted their own children to enjoy their youth and be able to have more fun and freedom

1960 The birth control pill becomes commercially available

1963 Martin Luther King, Jr.

delivers “I Have a Dream” at the March on Washington.

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

GROUND-BREAKING ADVANCES For the NHS, now firmly established and growing, the Sixties would be a great decade. The introduction of sterile supplies brought an end to the endless washing and sterilisation of equipment such as dressings and syringes. Treatment was improved by innovations such as the polio vaccine, chemotherapy and the introduction of renal dialysis. In 1961 one of the biggest decisions in NHS history was taken, when the contraceptive pill was made available and free on the NHS. Initially, it was only available to married women, but following a relaxation in the law between 1962 and 1969, the number of women taking the pill rose dramatically, from approximately 50,000 to 1 million. It was also a decade of ground breaking surgical advances. In 1962 Professor John Charnely carried out the first full hip replacement. In 1968 Christiaan Barnard crossed a milestone in the new field of life-extending surgery by performing the world’s first heart transplant in South Africa.

Sadly these advances were not matched by the outdated and war-damaged buildings in which staff had to work. To overcome this Enoch Powell, Minister of Health, developed The Hospital Plan, published in 1962, proposed the development of District General Hospitals for population areas of about 125,000 and laid out a pattern for the future district by district. It soon became clear however, that it would take much longer than expected to realise, but a start had been made.

Better management had also become a priority. In 1967 the Salmon Report was published. The report set out recommendations for developing the nursing staff structure and raising the status of the profession in hospital management; a development that would ultimately herald the end of the traditional matron role.

Nurses make children better.

In 125 years time different machines will be used, perhaps smaller machines.

I think that the uniforms will still be the same. Also I think that more drugs would be given through plasters, which is what I have now.

Patient, age 9

Study Days, 1960s 24 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

1968 Assassinations

of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy during the Poor People’s Campaign

1969 First moon landing

Lowri Aldworth MENTAL HEALTH NURSING GRADUATE

Student nurses, 1960s HIERARCHY AND CONTROL For nursing students in the sixties this was still some way off and participation in the swinging sixties was pretty much a distant dream. Matron and ward sisters were still incredibly powerful and sometimes fearsome figures and in the staff dining room, staff sat strictly in their level of rank. Everything, uniform, behaviour and the way in which patients were treated was still regimented by a strict hierarchy. Many nurses often started training at 18 or even younger, so the hospital and matron had almost a role of legal guardian through training.

They had control over when you were allowed out and how late you could stay out. There was a strict hierarchy on the ward and no nurse would dare talk to a consultant unless they were spoken to first. Pay was poor; £9 a month after laundry and accommodation costs. For some it was a struggle to survive and moonlighting was common. Student nurses had to live in the nurses’ home and would be locked in at 10.30pm. In the wards there was a still an emphasis on cleaning and after changing all the beds, student nurses would have to damp dust around the beds and clean and sterilise the bedpans for the day.

Mrs Holloway writes: “I trained at the Churchill Hospital in October 1966 and well remember the rigid routines as we alternated between the Churchill and the Radcliffe Infirmary in our training and later at Cowley Road geriatric hospital”.

Despite this, there was a lot of shared camaraderie and teamwork in the ward which would forge lifetime friendships.

1967 Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant

I feel very proud of the three years I spent at Oxford Brookes University and the experiences I had there undertaking my mental health nursing masters degree. Mental Health nursing is something I feel passionate about because it’s not just a case of relying on a medication to make someone feel better. It’s about using your skills as a nurse, as a human being, to work with someone holistically to help them recover. It’s enabling people to not just manage their illness but also lead fulfilling, happy and meaningful lives. For every person there will be different goals and challenges, and that’s what makes this job so interesting and rewarding When I reflect upon that time I think of the wonderfully supportive lecturers, the friends I made along the way, and the beautiful city I lived and worked in. Throughout the course I felt that my studies and experiences mattered to those around me; I felt part of the university and part of something important.

I feel incredibly grateful that those years led me to do the job I love now. Whilst at Oxford Brookes I was not simply a student, but always a future graduate, so that I was supported to think about the next step, and what sort of future I wanted to carve out for myself. Everything about my experience went above and beyond what I could have hoped for, and I feel very proud to say I am an Oxford Brookes graduate; Oxford Brookes made me the nurse I am today.

Neither was nursing as a professional influence on care standing still, exemplified by Nurse Dame Cicely Saunders who set up the first hospice in 1967. Nurse education was also developing and the first degrees in nursing were introduced in Edinburgh in 1960.

By the late 1960s masters degree courses in nursing had started to appear in many universities around the country. www.brookes.ac.uk | 25

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION

1970-79 The 1970s brought us the miner’s strike, which led to the 3 day week, with electricity cuts and petrol rationing. We also saw the invention of the CAT scan, the first test tube baby, and vaccines for rubella and chicken pox.

All new trainees at the time were housed in Arthur Sanctuary House in one of 169 rooms. When they first arrived in Oxford, they were issued with the blue uniform which is still in use today. They were also given paper caps to wear with one stripe to indicate that you were a first year nurse.

1970

1975

First vaccine developed for rubella and 1974 for chicken pox

Robert S. Ledley invents CAT-Scans

If you were of an acceptable standard you were then given a starched cap to wear which had to have 7 pleats in the back.

26 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

1975

1976

End of Vietnam War and Fall of Saigon

First outbreak of the Ebola virus

TRAINING ‘THE RADCLIFFE WAY’ On the first day new recruits had tea with the Nurses Home Warden. The intake or ‘sets’ as they were known started in January, May and September and there were 30-70 students at a time.

There was a 6 week ‘Introductory Course’ which covered how to make a bed ‘the Radcliffe way’, lectures and practical sessions on bandaging, lifting and handling, and how to provide personal care and bed bathing. It was also about learning by experience and student nurses were supported by clinical teachers who would come to the wards to teach practical skills Nurses spent a number of weeks, usually 8 on the wards as part of the establishment and they were not supernumerary.

They had 2 weeks ‘on block’ in the classroom having lectures.

These were divided up into the anatomical functions of the body and were based on a medical model. Shift patterns were decided by the duty rota and nights were not on block but part of the eight week placement. A record of all clinical hours worked including night duty had to be kept.

During the 2nd year of training, where a cap with two stripes was worn, student nurses went on secondments to geriatrics, psychiatry, midwifery or community.

Prior to the end of the course, student nurses had to undertake the four clinical assessments that needed to be passed as part of the training. These were total patient care, an aseptic technique, a drug round, and communication and organisation (running a shift for the day).

When students progressed to their 3rd year there was an interview with the head of the School of Nursing, Miss Harrold, and if you were of an acceptable standard you were then given a starched cap to wear which had to have 7 pleats in the back.

Third year students were left in charge of wards at night with the night sister doing her rounds through the night, and being on call via a bleep.

Over the 3 years of training, nurses had a book – the ‘Syllabus of subjects for Examination and Record of Practical Instruction and Experience for the Certification of General Nursing’. This was issued by the General Nursing Council, the body which preceded the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC). The student took this to each ward (and guarded it with her life) and as they experienced different nursing procedures they were signed off by the ward sister or staff nurse during the placement. Procedures could be signed off during the 1st, 2nd 1978 or 3rd years. Students also needed to attend 35 clinical classes over First test3 years; these were ward based tube baby sessions given by the sister or is born staff nurses.

1977 Introduction of the first mass-produced personal computers

THE FINAL EXAMINATION They were now also studying for their final examination which were two three-hour papers. Hospital finals were also undertaken which if you passed, allowed you to receive a hospital badge. Once state finals had been passed nurses were expected to stay at the Oxford Hospitals for at least another year for a 4th year. There was usually a discussion between the School, the ward sister and the nurse about where to ‘staff’. Most sisters would offer a place to a nurse who had worked well during her placement and fitted into the team.

NEW TRAINING MODEL During the 1970s the School of Nursing moved from the Harkness Building and the older part of the RI to the academic block at the new John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington. The Briggs Report, published in the early 1970s, proposed a new model of nurse training. All nurses would start on the same course and undertake an 18 month foundation course leading to a certificate. A further 18 months would allow the student to specialise in a particular branch of nursing or midwifery and lead to registration, marking a break with the apprentice style of training.

It took until 1979 to come to fruition and led to the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery (UKCC) the forerunner of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Emma Heron RESEARCH NURSE, UHBRISTOL NHS TRUST

I find it hard to believe it has been 15 years since I graduated as an adult nurse from Oxford Brookes University! I worked for 3 years in Oxford, mainly as a staff nurse in the Eye Hospital (on Doyne ward as it was then) and my love of Ophthalmology continued once I moved to Bristol after getting married in 2003. In January 2005, I had an unexpected move to Cardiac Intensive Care and despite feeling very much like a fish out of water at first, I grew to love the unit and the people I was working with and have continued my link with the Bristol Heart Institute right up to the present time. I have been a research nurse for the last 6 years and my work has taken me on an interesting journey including working both in the hospital and also as a research associate at the University of the West of England. I currently work as a part time bank research nurse for UHBristol NHS Trust, which I love doing.

HEALTH CARE ASSISTANT ROLE During the 1970s the Radcliffe Infirmary appointed a Clinical Instructor for Nursing Auxiliaries (today they are Health Care Assistants) the training they received often lead them to train as State Enrolled Nurses. The course was one week at the Churchill Hospital in the class room learning bed making, blanket bathing, mouth care, patient positioning and observations. They were then orientated to the ward where they would be working.

Student nurses, May 1973 set www.brookes.ac.uk | 27

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1980-89 The 1980s were the decade of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Falkland’s war, miner’s strikes, chunky mobile phones, BMX bikes, microwaves and home computers.

Prince Charles married Lady Diana and a new term ‘Sloane Rangers’ permeated the British consciousness.

As did ‘Yuppies’ (Young Urban Professionals); ambitious and upwardly mobile as they flashed the cash of their success.

Fashion found leg warmers, eye watering colours and big hair – it was perhaps not a decade of fashion’s finest hour!

1980 Smallpox is eradicated

1980

1982

Independence of Rhodesia, which becomes Zimbabwe

Falklands war

THE NHS EXPANDS The 1980s heralded in the 4th decade and a time of great change for the NHS. The Griffiths Report of 1983 brought in a General Management structure, which replaced the traditional Clinical Managers in the NHS. For the first time performance indicators were used and the NHS became more business and finance orientated. There were also organisational changes to nursing in 1983 with the setting up of the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC), comprising four national boards, each of which had responsibility for setting standards and quality assurance for nurse education. Also introduced at this time was the first Code of Conduct for Nurses, which outlined the ethics and standards nurses should adhere to. Another major change nationally was the moving of nurse training from hospitals based programmes into higher education. The nurse practitioner role was emerging at this time and there were also significant changes to mental health provision underway; The Parkinson Report in 1979 having recommended the closure of the old ‘asylums’ by moving care into the community.

The role of enrolled nurse also started to be phased out. Places for registered general nurse training nurses were also reduced, which many believe seeded the perfect storm of the recruitment crisis we are now experiencing in 2016.

In hospital I like it that I can keep my own toys in my room, and have my Disney Princess duvet cover.

Patient, age 9

Ward team, 1980s

For the first time performance indicators were used and the NHS became more business and finance orientated.

28 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

1986

1989

GPS becomes available.

Challenger and Chernobyl disasters

Fall of the Berlin Wall

CLINICAL GRADING INTRODUCED By 1987, many NHS Authorities were in debt, 1983 waiting lists were extending HIV, the virus that and wards were being closed. Pay disputes were causes AIDS, very determined and often is identified successful: nurses pay went up by 12.3% over a 1985 19 month period. This was Willem J. Kolff also the decade that saw the introduction of Clinical invented the Grading in 1988, it operated artificial kidney on the premise that pay dialysis machine should be determined by tasks undertaken rather than inflexible job titles. This introduction was highly controversial and 100,000 nurses appealed, stating that they had received an inaccurate and unfair grade: it was 2003 before all those appeals were finally settled. In Oxford, there was a strong drive to be creative and radical. Carter from the Radcliffe Infirmary Guild writes that, ”The unique partnership between Oxford Health Authority and Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) was created in 1986”. This shift resulted in a four year undergraduate degree comprised of four nursing awards (Adult, Children’s, Leaning Disability and Mental Health) and Midwifery. The degree offered two years of combined study for all four branches of nursing followed by two years of field specific modules. In 1989, all programmes were jointly validated by the Polytechnic and representatives of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The first cohort of students started on 25th September 1989.

Helen FoordWarren ADULT NURSING STUDENT, SWINDON CAMPUS

I chose nursing because I wanted to care for people and make a difference. However, since I have started my training, Oxford Brookes has made me realise that there is so much more to nursing than I imagined. To be able to nurse someone is a privilege.

I have felt privileged every time a patient has allowed me to come into their home, or sit by their bed, or hold their hand so that I can help them.

I feel my training so far has made a huge difference to my growth as a student nurse and I have felt part of a family at Oxford Brookes.

INTRODUCING THE LECTURER PRACTITIONER Oxford also developed a new and innovative role of Lecturer Practitioner, a ground breaking joint appointment between the NHS and Oxford Polytechnic.

Lecturer Practitioners were expert practitioners responsible for both the learning environments in their practice areas and the education of students.

The 1980s had certainly been a turbulent decade of losses and gains, but for many nurses it brought not just higher pay but also a recognition of their professional contribution of nursing and the need to offer them both an academic as well as practice focused education, such that these two strands would be indivisible.

Cohort of nursing students, 1980s www.brookes.ac.uk | 29

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Swindon’s medical heritage

The GWR Medical Fund Hospital in Faringdon Road, Swindon, part of a system that became a blueprint for the NHS (dates unknown, courtesy of The Swindon Society)

Swindon has a rich and proud heritage - not least in its impressive history of medical care.

While the town’s gigantic workshops were once the beating heart of the Great Western Railway (the world’s greatest), just as impressive were the railway town’s social and welfare systems.

BLUEPRINT FOR THE NHS Indeed, Britain’s greatest invention, the National Health Service, was inspired by the GWR Medical Fund, which was founded in Swindon in 1847.

A century later, Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS, found the Fund was the perfect blueprint for his plan, noting: “There it was: a complete health service. All we had to do was to expand it to embrace the whole country.”

Although founded by chief engineer Daniel Gooch, the Fund was run by the workers, for the workers, who paid for it directly from their wages.

It was a true ‘cradle to grave’ system, from pre-natal care to funeral services. The Works even manufactured artificial limbs for injured workers, while railwaymen and their families all had access to washing baths, swimming baths and even Turkish baths.

The GWR built a house for its doctor (Park House, which still stands), and opened a cottage hospital (now a community centre) in 1872.

It was fitting, then, that the NHS’s first new hospital, named after Princess Margaret, was built in Swindon.

Just as fitting was the naming of the town’s new NHS hospital, which opened in 2002, as the Great Western Hospital.

Swindon’s advanced healthcare traditions can be seen in parts of the story of the town’s workhouse, at Stratton, which was one of the most enlightened in Victorian times, and its infirmary evolved into a general hospital that provided excellent care for long-term and elderly patients.

30 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

The former workhouse site also hosted military casualties during the Second World War, caring for horribly burned tank crews after D-Day, while Lydiard Park, on the western outskirts of town, hosted two temporary hospitals – firstly for American forces and then for German prisoners of war.

Meanwhile, RAF Princess Alexandra Hospital, at nearby Wroughton, provided full medical services to Armed Forces personnel until the 1990s.

Swindon workers also have a history of producing a range of medical equipment. During the First World War the GWR Works turned out fully equipped ambulance trains, and among many companies with bases, offices or factories in the town in more recent times were surgical equipment developers Deloro Stellite and capsule manufacturers RP Scherer.

And the world’s first heart transplant, in 1967, was carried out with equipment developed and manufactured by Vickers-Armstrong at South Marston, Swindon.

Swindon even has connections with the world’s most famous nurse. Charlotte Wilsdon (pictured) answered Florence Nightingale’s appeal for volunteers during the Crimean War, and set sail with her in November 1854.

It was great regret that Florence sent Charlotte home, on medical advice, in May 1856, with a hand-written reference claiming she was “a kind, active and useful nurse” and - unlike many of their colleagues - “a strictly sober woman”.

Born in Abingdon, Charlotte later moved to Swindon and is buried at Radnor Street Cemetery, under her married name, Andrews.

OXFORD BROOKES AT FERNDALE In 1989, nurse education moved into higher education establishments and the Oxford Brookes Swindon Campus at Ferndale was opened in 1999.

Nursing degrees and diplomas have been delivered at Ferndale since this time and the pre-registration masters route was introduced in 2013.

In 2016 Oxford Brookes will move to a new site in Swindon for the next part of its history of educating nurses and operating department practitioners for Wiltshire and the South West.

Dr Obrey Alexis SENIOR LECTURER, OXFORD BROOKES, SWINDON

I have been a senior lecturer in Swindon for over 10 years and I teach on a number of nursing and research modules. I obtained my PhD from the University of Surrey where I examined the experiences of internationally recruited nurses in the NHS. I have also been a visiting scholar at a number of universities in the USA, for example, New York University, Columbia University, John Hopkins University in Baltimore and the University of Pennsylvania. I sit on a culture and diversity advisory group to the Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England advising on nursing issues and raising awareness of health inequalities in black and minority ethnic communities. As a researcher, I have published widely in the field of international nurses and my other research interests include migrant health, workforce issues and prostate cancer in black men.

Hilary Walker CHIEF NURSE, GREAT WESTERN HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Nursing is special.

There are few professions that offer the freedom to provide a personal response to people at their time of greatest need. At its best, nursing embodies caring and therapeutic practice alongside skilful performance of the more visible technical interventions of modern day healthcare. The diversity of nursing makes it an exciting, rewarding career. Every year practice innovations, research and education help nurses to push the boundaries and widen their contribution to the delivery of high quality, contemporary healthcare. At the same time nurse leaders at all levels become increasingly adept at influencing the wider health and social care agenda through the development of business skills.

The nursing profession has always and will continue to improve the safety of and evidence base for care, however the ‘constants’ of nursing remain as they ever were: the ability to establish a meaningful connection with others, to understand and interpret their needs and to care for them with compassion and humanity. www.brookes.ac.uk | 31

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

1990-99 The 1990s was a decade of rapid technological advancement.

The World Wide Web had just been invented and the ownership of personal computers and mobile phones was rapidly on the rise. The first web browser went online in 1993 and by 2001, more than 50% of some Western countries had Internet access and more than 25% had mobile phone access. Media now took many forms, 1996 including print, audio, Dolly the sheep video and internet and art becomes the came out of the galleries first clone and into the street; there were now many ways to communicate.

1990

1992

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web. Gulf War begins

Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union

COOL BRITANNIA Culturally, the 1990s in the UK were characterized by Britpop and Cool Britannia and more broadly the emergence of multiculturalism; the view that diverse cultures in a society, with their own racial, religious and cultural customs and values should merit equal respect. In medicine, this was to be the decade of gene therapy, stem cell research, smart pills, and Viagra. Amid much controversy in 1996, cloning arrived when the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, was successfully cloned from an adult cell at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh.

INTRODUCING NHS TRUSTS Health care and nurse education were also undergoing seismic shifts. The NHS and Community Care Act (1990) heralded the introduction of an ‘internal market’ into the NHS. NHS Trusts, created in 1991, would become independent providers, while Health and Local Authorities became assessors and purchasers of care from providers such as hospitals. The focus was now on enabling health by tailoring care to the needs of the individual. The General Practice (GP) Contract of 1990 with its focus on health prevention

In 125 years from now machines will be more technical, perhaps smaller equipment and different tools and hopefully less time can be spent in hospital. But the day to day care of patients won’t change. I also think that the uniforms won’t change in a 125 years, and I believe that the essence and care of patients is at the heart of care.

Patient, age 16

Patrycja Wieckowska, age 9

32 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

1990

1991

Nelson Mandela is freed.

Euro is introduced

Collapse of the Soviet Union

Ros Alstead and promotion launched a boom in Practice Nursing, as this was the first time GPs would be paid for doing health screening, preventative and promotion.

PROJECT 2000 Also in nursing as the decade opened, enrolled nurse training ended and Project 2000 was implemented nationally by the nurse regulator, United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC).

This was the point when nursing students moved from a paid apprenticeship to a supernumerary model during their clinical placements. Newly qualified nurses became a Registered General Nurse (RGN) rather than a State Registered Nurse (SRN). The P2000 common foundation programme was similar to Oxford’s, but the completing qualification was at diploma level not the degree level offered in Oxford.

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY In 1992, Oxford Polytechnic became a University and honoured its founding Vice-Principal, John Henry Brookes’, when it chose the name Oxford Brookes University. The Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy also became part of the new institution and joined Nursing in the new School of Health Care, then under the stewardship of Ruth Champion, Dean of School. Developing its strong theme of multi professional education, Physiotherapy education joined the undergraduate pre-registration portfolio in 1998.

The need to offer further and higher education for qualified nurses was also high on the agenda in the nineties. As a result, Post-Registration and Education and Practice (PREP) was introduced by the UKCC in 1995, as the system to both monitor quality of practice and to ensure that nurses kept up to date, particularly as technological advances were changing so much of health care assessment and management.

As the Millennium approached, in Oxford, adult nursing was spreading its wings in 1999 with the introduction of an adult nursing programme in Swindon at Oxford Brookes new campus at Ferndale.

John Henry Brookes Building at night, 2014 (below left) Simulation labs, Swindon Campus (below right)

DIRECTOR OF NURSING AND CLINICAL STANDARDS, OXFORD HEALTH NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

I have been a registered general and mental health nurse for over thirty years. My nursing career started in a way which is familiar to all undergraduate nurses today; in 1977 I was in the first cohort of nursing undergraduates in London University. Throughout my career I have used an academic knowledge base comprising a sound grounding in life sciences and social sciences to underpin my practice. From this early stage the importance of developing the evidence base in nursing, as well as using established evidence was important, it remains so today. Equally important is experiential learning which continues to be a significant influence. I am no different to any nurse who works on a daily basis with other inspirational nurses and other team colleagues to continuously improve the patients’ experience and outcomes. Whilst the context of care changes these things remain constant and we can practice what we have learnt safely in changing times.

Nursing has been a fantastic career, it brings great variety and human interest, which ranges from celebrating success in care and recovery to the depths of sadness working with people at the most vulnerable times of their lives to achieve the outcomes they aspire to.

Thirty years ago nursing care was ‘given’ to patients the nurse knew best and identified the interventions. Today patients and carers are supported to manage their own healthcare and outcomes for as long as possible and to enable patients and families to achieve their goals.

www.brookes.ac.uk | 33

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

2000-16 As the 20th century closed and a new millennium opened, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief when the feared millennium computer bug didn’t materialise to cause the digital chaos that had been predicted.

By 2000 and as the decade progressed, the phenomenal growth in technology and the internet touched and influenced all aspects of life. We are now more connected than at any other point in history.

This has brought many benefits, but also turbulence.

Economic growth brought considerable environmental consequences, as demand for diminishing energy resources soared, bringing concerns about climate change and global economic stability. The attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001 heralded new fears about security, and migration from conflicts concerns about social stability. In July 2008, Oxford Brookes reflected this zeitgeist by appointing Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty (pictured) and a respected human rights campaigner, to replace Jon Snow as Chancellor of the University.

Marston Road Campus, acquired for School of Health and Social Care in 2004

34 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

2001

2003

September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington DC

Iraq War begins.

2010

2012

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000

The Higgs Boson is discovered

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS In medicine much had been achieved. The human genome has been mapped Major to give us an unprecedented developments in understanding of the the understanding characteristics of inheritance of aspects and disease processes, of human such that we are now in reproduction a much stronger position developed by than ever before to develop Emeritus Professor new diagnostic tests and Nigel Groome, treatments. In 2007, scientists Oxford Brookes made a vital breakthrough University when they reprogrammed adult skin cells to become stem cells, this overcame the ethical issues associated with use of embryos and brought the use of stem cells in therapy closer to a reality. These developments, and the more sophisticated treatments they will bring, will have both a profound effect on responsive health care and perhaps more significantly, for our future health, prevention strategies.

2008

FUTURE HEALTH CARE In 2001, Oxford Brookes introduced the Diploma in Nursing for all its four branches. This ran in parallel with the Bachelor’s Degree until 2013, the point when the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), that had been established by Parliament in 2001, decreed that all entry onto the Register should be from nurses who have studied at bachelor’s degree level or above. The School also continued to develop its multi-professional focus with Paramedic Emergency Care joining the School in 2000 and Operating Department Practice and Social Work in 2002; an addition that resulted in its change of name to the School of Health and Social Care (SHSC). Osteopathy joined in 2003.

MARSTON ROAD CAMPUS In 2004, the School then scattered across 12 sites in Oxford, was brought together under the direction of June Girvin, Dean of School into state-of-the-art facilities in the recently acquired and refurbished Milham Ford Girls School in Marston. The School went from strength to strength and celebrated, with the University in September 2010, Oxford Brookes being named the UK’s best post-1992 university for the tenth year running in The Sunday Times’ University Guide. During this time Dr Liz Westcott has led the pre-registration nursing programmes as Director and then Department Head, ably supported over the years by Juliet Bostwick, Dr Sharon Black, Bev Gillings,

2004

2005

Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 230,000

IRA end military campaign in Northern Ireland. 7/7 attacks on London Underground

Dr Georgie Hawley, Dr Ian Holt, Dr Sandy Oldfield, Neville Scrivener, Rachel Skittrall, Julia Winter and Peter Zaagman. Dr Ann Ewens, Department Head and Dr Helen Walthall have led the post graduate and post registration programmes for the last decade.

THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES In 2011 Health and Social Care joined with the School of Biological and Medical Sciences and Psychology to become The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Nurse education was not standing still either. In 2013 the first cohort of Preregistration Nursing Masters degree students joined the Faculty; a programme that provided an opportunity for those who had already gained a Bachelor’s degree in another subject to study at masters level to become a nurse.

Emma Blakey ADULT NURSING STUDENT, OXFORD BROOKES

Deciding to make a career change later in life has been the best thing I have ever done. For many years I worked in health improvement but had always felt there was something missing so I was delighted to be accepted onto the Adult Nursing Degree at Oxford Brookes University.

For me, nursing has filled a gap by allowing me to put my values into practical action.

I feel nursing is about caring, empowering and advocating. It is also about challenging inequalities and doing something about the context in which people make health decisions.

By becoming a nurse I honestly feel as if all the pieces of the puzzle have come together and I am excited about my future career and working with others to improve people’s health.

KNOWLEDGE THROUGH RESEARCH The establishment of the Institute of Nursing and Allied Health Research (OxINAHR) in 2015, has ensured that as nurse education celebrates its 125 year anniversary it will be well equipped to continue to break new ground. It will enable our nurses and allied health professionals to develop the knowledge through research that they will need to address the urgent health challenges that face our region and wider society. For more information, visit: http://www.oxinahr.com/ In 2014 The Oxford Academic Health Sciences Centre, a partnership between Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Oxford was launched.

Professor of Nursing, Debra Jackson

THE RADCLIFFE INFIRMARY GUILD The Radcliffe Infirmary Guild celebrated their 90th Anniversary in June 2015 with a meeting and lunch for 120 Guild members. Many nurses who trained in Oxford and also now Oxford Brookes graduates have joined over the years and it is a great way to keep up with your peers and also to meet nurses who have being educated in Oxford and now Swindon too, as a common link.

This cake was made for the celebrations which also included a tour of what remains of the Radcliffe Infirmary building on Woodstock Road.

To join the Guild or for more details, please email westcottej@brookes.ac.uk

www.brookes.ac.uk | 35

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

Back in the day...

School of Health Care staff, 1990s

Student nurses, 1980s

Christmas on Victoria Ward, 1960s 36 | OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

Outside the Churchill Hospital,1960s

Anna Hemphill SENIOR LECTURER

Adult nursing graduates class of 2000

Nurses canteen, 1966

I joined Oxford Polytechnic as a Lecturer Practitioner in 1991. This was an exciting time for nursing in Oxford, with a strong vision from leaders in practice and education for a practice led nursing degree course taught by expert practitioners who were also researchers, managers and teachers. The Lecturer Practitioner role was truly integrated so that I could be teaching a student in the classroom one day and working alongside them caring for children having surgery the following day.

As part of my clinical role I was the specialist nurse for children with cleft lip and palate and became interested in how nurses could support families with the psychological impact of this condition.

This led me to undertake training in family therapy.

In 2001 I moved to working as a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes. This gave me the opportunity to develop a short course, ‘the psychosocial care of children, adolescents and their families’, which aimed to enable practitioners to better understand family dynamics and the emotional needs of children and to work therapeutically with them.

Subsequently I spent a year as a post graduate student at Oxford Brookes, training to become a health visitor. Being a health visitor has enabled me to, once again, to learn from my own practice and use that learning to inform my teaching.

I believe that the essence of nursing lies in the relationship that the nurse develops with her clients. For me, learning from clients about their experience is key to being an effective educator.

Student nurses, 1960s www.brookes.ac.uk | 37

125 YEARS OF NURSE EDUCATION IN OXFORD

2016 programme of events Please see the website to book your places: www.nursing.brookes.ac.uk/125-years JANUARY 21 21

6pm

JHBB

Launch of 125 years events and celebration booklet

JHBB

125 years celebrations inaugural lecture – Professor Brendan McCormack: Capturing the energy within – the future landscape of nurse education

FEBRUARY 17

6pm

JHBB

Professor Debra Jackson, Professorial Lecture

25

5pm

Marston Road

Professor Kim Usher: A Celebration of mental health nursing highlighting some key developments over the past four decades

5pm

Marston Road

Dr Ann Bradshaw lecture: History of nursing post Nightingale Followed by exhibition of nursing history

MARCH 24 25-28

Easter Break

APRIL 19

5pm

23

9am

26

12pm

Marston Road

Professor Lynn McDonald: History of nursing pre and including Nightingale Followed by exhibition of nursing history Fun Walk/ Run event at Harcourt Hill Oxford and Swindon

Swindon Campus

Professor Kate Seers

MAY 11

International Nurses week

12

International Nurses Day – OUHT, OBU joint nurses conference

TBC

International Nurses week student lunch

17

5pm

JHBB

Professor Viv Bennett CBE: The Best Start in Life for All our Children and Young People

18

6pm

Marston Road

Health Matters debate on Dementia

TBC

Tours round hospitals 12pm

OBU

Celebration lunch open to all at Oxford Brookes Restaurant

7

2pm

Swindon Campus

Professor Sarah Kagan: Book Smarts. Street Smarts, Nurse Smarts

16

5pm

Marston Road

Professor Alison Kitson lecture

6pm

JHBB

Professor Catherine Stoddart lecture

5pm

Marston Road

Professor Patricia Davidson: Women live longer but at what cost?

21 JUNE

JULY 20 AUGUST 1

SEPTEMBER All Together Better Health V111 conference in Oxford http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/atbh8

6-9 Swindon Campus

Professor Debra Jackson

TBC

TBC

Ruth Norway lecture

18

Christ Church Cathedral

Annual St Frideswide Civic Cathedral service, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

TBC

Sarah Cowley Lecture

Oxford / Swindon

Future of Nursing Debate

TBC OCTOBER

NOVEMBER TBC DECEMBER TBC

TOP DOWN: Department staff receiving the Brookes People Award for Confidence, June 2015; Department of Nursing staff on International Nurses Day 2015; Mental Health team

SOURCES Annual Reports and Magazines of The Radcliffe Guild of Nurses Autograph book held by Oxford Health Archive in which wounded soldiers recorded their WW1 experiences of health care in The Radcliffe Infirmary BBC (2010) The medical milestones that defined the noughties http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8421172.stm

Oxford Institute of Nursing and Allied Health Research (OxINAHR) http://www.brookes.ac.uk/support-us/finding-solutions/health/ excellence-in-nursing-and-allied-health-care Local Histories www.localhistories.org/20thcent.html and www.localhistories.org/1930slife.html Moss, A (2007) Images of England- The Radcliffe Infirmary

BBC (2011) History http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/ victorian_medicine_01.shtml

Selby Green, J (1990) The History of the Radcliffe Infirmary. Image Publications. Banbury

BBC (2014) History - Mary Seacole (1805 - 1881) http://www.bbc. co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml

Royal British Nurses Association www.rbna.org.uk/

BBC (2014) How the UK coped with the millennium bug 15 years ago http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30576670 Bines, H & Watson, D (1992) Developing Professional Education.

SRHE AND Open University Press Bone, M (1970) Relief of the sick and lame – two hundred years of Nursing at the Radcliffe Infirmary.

Hansard Reports www.parliament.uk/business/publications/ hansard/ Heatley, N (2004) A County Hospital 1920 - 1988 produced by the Penicillin and Luck History of the Radcliffe Infirmary, www.ouh.nhs.uk/hospitals/jr/ radcliffe-infirmary.aspx

The Royal College of Nurses www.rcn.org.uk/ Science Museum - www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/ techniques/nursing.aspx and http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ broughttolife/themes/practisingmedicine/women.aspx The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh http://www.roslin. ed.ac.uk/public-interest/dolly-the-sheep/a-life-of-dolly/ The Times and Sunday Times’ University Guide http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/gug/ U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (1999) Issues in Labor Statistics: Computer Ownership up sharply in the 1990s, Bureau of Labor Statistics Summary 99-4 March 1999: Washington, DC http://www. bls.gov/opub/btn/archive/computer-ownership-up-sharply-in-the1990s-pdf.pdf Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Further information CONNECT WITH US @lwestcott1 @JuneinHE @obu_nursing @AnnEwens @sharp_pam @mazwaite @pascale_blakey @OxINAHR @obu_nursing

To find out more about the 125 Years of Nurse Education in Oxford celebration, please contact Robyn Thompson-Vango at rthompson-vango@brookes.ac.uk or phone +44 (0) 1865 482565

www.nursing.brookes.ac.uk/ 125-years For more information about the Department of Nursing visit:

http://nursing.brookes.ac.uk

/brookes.nursing

For more information about the Nursing Practice Research Group visit:

/oxfordbrookes

ww.nursing.brookes.ac.uk/ research/nursing-practice

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Oxford Brookes University Jackstraws Lane Marston, Oxford Oxon OX3 OFL

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