File:1883 Nursing Certificate for Elizabeth Begg (13703373054).jpg

On April 8 1915 the first fifty New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS) nurses to serve in the First World War sailed from Wellington. To celebrate the event we are highlighting some other records associated with the history of nursing in New Zealand. The images presented this week in relation to nursing have all come from a collection of records transferred to Archives New Zealand by the School of Advanced Nursing Studies (SANS)

The need for increased educational opportunities for nurses was recognised in 1923 by the first director of Nursing, Department of Health, Miss J. Bicknell, who, influenced by developments overseas, considered that similar opportunities should be available in New Zealand to prepare nurses for administrative and teaching responsibilities in the hospital and public health nursing services. She presented her views to a conference of the New Zealand Registered Nurses' Association, from which a strong recommendation was forwarded to the Government asking for the establishment of a school of nursing in conjunction with the University of New Zealand. This School was commenced in 1925 offering a five-year diploma programme. The students registered at the University of Otago for two years and then spent three years at a hospital. This course was discontinued in 1926 due to lack of finance. A school for post-graduate nursing study was established in 1928 within the Wellington Hospital complex. The school was guided by a Committee of Management, which had representatives from Victoria University of Wellington, the Department of Health and Wellington Hospital Board. The school later become known as the New Zealand Post-Graduate School for Nurses and initially offered a six-month course. Courses were conducted by the Department of Health, Victoria University College, Wellington Hospital and the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Britain. In 1940 Wellington Teachers’ Training College also participated in lectures at the school. In 1952 the length of the course was extended to nine months. In 1970 the school changed its name to the New Zealand School of Advanced Nursing Studies. In 1972 the School’s Management Committee was disbanded and reconstructed as the Advisory Committee to the School. The Advisory Committee had representatives from the New Zealand Registered Nurses Association plus the Department of Health, the Hospital Boards and Victoria University of Wellington. During the 1970s the curriculum was revised to meet the many changes in the nursing environment. The date of the school’s disestablishment is not known, but is estimated to be around 1979. This item shows the 1883 nursing certificate for Elizabeth Begg, and the regulations for the training of probationer nurses at Wellington Hospital of the same period. This would have been one of the earliest such nursing certificates issued by a New Zealand hospital. Wellington Hospital based its nursing tuition on the Nightingale training methods used at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, England.

The Inspector of Hospitals reported to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary on 9th January 1884 in his Report on Hospitals in New Zealand that a “very excellent system of nursing is in full operation at the Wellington and Auckland Hospitals, where well-educated ladies may be seen serving their apprenticeship with other “probationers”. On his visit to Wellington he reported that “[t]he nurses have been supplanted by probationers drawn from a higher order of Society”. “The very successful introduction of the probationer system will also necessitate some structural addition of inexpensive character. These nurses take the greatest possible interest in their calling, which they have chosen from other than pecuniary motives only; and I have no hesitation in stating that a foundation is here being laid for a considerable permanent benefit to the colony.”

Sources:

To read the whole report go to the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR), 1884 Session I, H-07a atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&cl=search&...

Christine Andrews, ‘Developing a nursing specialty – Plunket nursing 1905-1920’ (Victoria University of Wellington, 2001) Master’s Thesis, Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health. [Includes photograph of Elizabeth Begg] researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/

Archway Reference: ADEU, 16389, SANS20, 2/21, Certificate of Nurse Elizabeth Begg – Also the regulations as to the training of probationers, 1883. (R13235328) archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=13235328

For any enquiries please email Research.Archives@dia.govt.nz