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Nursing and Midwifery Timeline
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Nursing and Midwifery in the early 19th century – a brief background
Before the advent of training, nursing was often casual and low paid. Pay in London voluntary hospitals was between 6 shillings and 9s 6d a week, with some board and lodging. Outside London pay was much lower. Few nurses were described as educated. Facilities in hospitals were poor, though some began to provide meals for nurses. Sisters were recruited separately from nurses and were more respectable, and matrons, whose work was largely administrative, even more so. During 19th century, anyone could call themselves a nurse. However, as medical practices developed, the range of knowledge and skills required of nurses was increasing. For example, with the introduction of anaesthesia, surgical nurses became responsible for post anaesthesia care. They also administered the new analgesics introduced for pain relief. As knowledge of diseases increased, nurses were required to monitor and report patients’ symptoms, and as germ theory became accepted, they worked to control infection.​
​The Dickensian image of the gin-swilling, unkempt ‘Sairey Gamp’ type midwife devalued any knowledge base on which practice was established. It gave the impression that these women were unscientific and therefore unsafe, despite there now being available evidence of ‘unofficial’ systems of training from at least the seventeenth century in London.
 Even though this training existed, it would not have been based on a formal understanding of human anatomy / physiology or the potential value of ‘scientific’ intervention. The midwives who cared for women giving birth could have been considered as ill prepared or even dangerous by those in the developing scientific community despite the fact that, both historically and internationally, birth was normally successfully accomplished under these conditions. In Britain, there were moves to try to organise lay midwives through regulation; the Obstetrical Society (an organisation of male practitioners) from 1826 tried to make a case for this with some success. 
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​But possibly the most significant development was in mid century, when the Royal Colleges in Britain established examinations for male practitioners in midwifery. This put the final seal on the exclusion of women from controlling midwifery as women were unable to attend university and, therefore, take these exams.

​Extracts taken from: https://memoriesofnursing.uk/
1820
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​Florence Nightingale born in Florence, Italy. 
1833
​Childbirth becomes a mandatory area of study for medical degrees in Scotland.
1854
Florence Nightingale goes to Turkey to lead a team of nurses caring for soldiers in the Crimean War.
1855
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​Mary Seacole establishes the British Hotel, a convalescent home
​for soldiers in the Crimean War
1859
William Rathbone, merchant and philanthropist in Liverpool, set up the first ever district nursing service.
Mary Robinson became the first paid nurse in the country to attend the poor.

1860
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​Nightingale Training School opens at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. One of the first institutions to teach nursing and midwifery as a formal profession, the training school was dedicated to communicating the philosophy and practice of its founder and patron, Florence Nightingale
1886
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Victoria Hospital, Burnley was opened by Prince Albert Victor in 1886
1902
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Midwives Act – requires all midwives to be certified to practice. This limited midwives who were already practicing by making them get certified before they could resume their practice. Interestingly enough,  this only limited female midwives and so many man-midwives would continue to practice unlicensed until this was resolved in 1926.
1908
The first meeting of the National Council of Trained Nurses of Great Britain and Ireland was held in London.
1914-18
World War One; Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) developed with 10,500 nurses enrolled.
1915
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​Edith Cavell is arrested in Brussels for harbouring French and British soldiers during World War I. She was recruited in 1907 to bring Nightingale-style nurse training to Belgium. She is executed in Belgium by a German firing squad for helping hundreds of Allied soldiers escape to the Netherlands during World War I.
1916
Royal College of Nursing founded with 34 members.
1919
Nurses Act established the first professional register help by the General Nursing Council.
1922
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Elsie Townsend, Night Matron at Blackburn Royal Infirmary in 1922 earned £85 per year.
​Other nursing staff earned the following.

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1932
Lancet Commission on Nursing explores how to make nursing more attractive to young women in order to deal with shortage of trainees.
1940
The state enrolled nurse is formally recognised with two years of training.
1951
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​Male nurses were allowed to join the professional register.
1960-63
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​The Burnley School of Nursing
Documentary about nurse training facilities in Burnley and District Hospitals. After shots of local attractions and scenery, the film follows the story of a trainee nurse from her application and interview for cadet training through to her work on the wards. View the video here.
1970
​Peel Report by the Department of Health recommended that 100% of births should take place in the hospital.
1979
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​His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales paid an official visit to Burnley General Hospital. 
1983
Griffiths Report establishes general management in the NHS, largely taking leadership away from nurses and doctors.

United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting sets up a new professional register with four branches (mental health, children, learning disability and adult) reflecting former types of training and qualifications: Registered General Nurse, Enrolled Nurse (General), Registered Mental Nurse, Enrolled Nurse (Mental), Registered Nurse for the Mentally Handicapped, Enrolled Nurse (Mental Handicap), Enrolled Nurse, Registered Sick Children’s Nurse, Fever Nurse, Registered Midwife and Registered Health Visitor.

1986
Project 2000 sets out the move to diploma level nurse training based in colleges/ universities rather than hospital based schools.
1992
Health Committee Report on Maternity services recommended that a medical model of care was not appropriate for all women.
1993
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​“Changing Childbirth” supported the report from 1992 as it promoted midwives as the ideal supporter for normal birth and identified the importance of choice and continuity in childbirth. 
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2002
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​Nurses are able to prescribe medication.
2004
RCN votes for degree only preparation.
2009
All nursing courses in UK become degree level.
2010
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The first baby was born at Burnley's new £32m maternity unit.
Read More

2011
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​Sheena Byrom was one of the UK’s first consultant midwives, and as head of midwifery successfully helped to lead the development of three birth centres in East Lancashire.  She was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to midwifery. Sheena's midwifery memoirs, Catching Babies, is a Sunday Times bestseller, 
2019
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​New Trainee Associates joined the Trust.
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