School of Nursing Prospectus

[backman]

 I have recently been fortunate enough to acquire a number of prospectus booklets issued by different Schools of Nursing during the early 1960s and intend to list these on the Multiply site; http://nursinghistory.multiply.com/photos/album/5/Nursing_Prospectus_and_Recruitment_Literature

The print should be readable using the zoom in facility

They consist of several major London teaching hospitals with details of the training courses,facilities and pay rates for 1964,all were sent to one lady in Wales,whose estate they are from.I would love to know which hospital if any she eventually chose and whether her badges survived?

So far I have St Georges,St Marys,The Royal Free,& St Thomas's and am awaiting ones for The London,Westminster,Guys,St Bartholomews and Universty College Hospital.She also had leaflets for the Middlesex,Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Royal Navy Nursing.As they seem to be the main hospitals of the day I wonder why she didn't include Kings?
Does anyone have others( I think Sue had a Leicester one?)

[wilfb]

Hi Peter,

I don't know the answer to your query about 'Kings so I'm no help there...

However, I do possess a small number of SoN prospectus/syllabus booklets which I will try to share both here and on Hospitals History ( http://www.hospitalshistory.multiply.com ) in the near future. Job 3 in the line right now... There is of course one syllabus already on display herein on the national history ephemera photograph gallery - I would be more than happy to copy that to Hospitals History if you feel that it would be a useful, addition. Let me know.

I wish that it was possible to show just what the completion of just one practical syllabus item meant to a student (and the sister/tutor/matron signing an item off) what seems to be just a few short years ago. I can remember clearly giving my first I/m injection (successfully thanks be), and also my first failed venepuncture (stopped before I involved the patient because when asked to demonstrate what I was about to do on the nurse who was to supervise I held the syringe the wrong way!!).  Elation at the first, total embarrassment and dejection at the second. And oh, the catheters..... Plus finding the patient as a person was a sin one would prefer not to commit..

Curiously, (venepuncture) I never missed a vein thereafter... Could have become a phlebotomist no problem!! And there were a lot more items in a practical syllabus!

My first I still have - magic memories split by the nightmares!

[backman]

Thanks for the offer of those,I have now added the Barts one and shall hopefully add more soon.

I too remember the hunt for people to "sign me off " for each practical procedure and the panic as we approached our finals to ensure we had,if not a full set,enough to show that we hadn't been idle for the last three years.I remember the three/four ?main assessments,which I think were Asceptic technique,The Drugs round,Ward Management and ??

Whilst some teaching methods may have been by rote,they were still very effective and many of their principles I can still apply today ,many years later!

[wilfb]

Hi Peter,

A long time almost under water - apologies for my finding appearances/disappearances - our weather has been horrendous. Apart from Friday, when we started the day to brilliant sunshine, posted the 'Atonement' DVD to the winner of our news page competition here on SoN, did the shopping and got back to the house just in time for the next storm - literally as we got the last bag into the house. No sunshine for us...

Today is our Ruby wedding! The sun is shining... Please do not hold your breath. Asphyxia can be serious..

To business. I think that the fourth (not in that order) practical assessment you seek was 'Total care of the Patient'.

I don't have the examination sheets to hand but I think that is correct.  When I find the sheets (a resume was GNC green and tucked inside each practical syllabus - '70s & 80's) I will upload to the history of nursing site and our own ephemera galleries herein.

For now you must forgive me - 40 years ago I was a C/n at Ashton General, and right at this moment (time-wise) being waved off from the Sisters Home in a wedding limousine! But today I am enjoying the sunshine a little before final work on the Mary Ellen Watkin Nurse History. Much of it is already on the server (but not opened) although we are even now making further progress with the detective work. Must go before the sunshine (or my wife) does!

To anyone who scents male chauvanism let me explain my laxity. It is not neglect of one's wife. The wine (from Venice) needs a little time to cool. Nursing has it's rewards... Just takes a little time to deliver them!

Will.

[backman]

Many congratulations to you both on attaining 40 years of wedded bliss.Look forward to seeing more info when both you and the weather recover!

[DAVE]

Does anyone have any prospectus from Chester Royal Infirmary.

Dave.

[backman]

Not a prospectus ,although I do have somewhere some Nurses league magazines from the 1940s,I will try and dig them out.