Female Nurses

[barrysutton]

Apart from Wartime, when where Married Female nurses allowed to work in Hospitals
All the best,
ODPBarry

[barrysutton]

Hello again,
Doesn't anyone have any idea when married female nurses started working on wards in hospitals.

[wilfb]

Hi Barry.

I don't know the answer to this one. Perhaps Peter, Sue or maybe eric, or even another member has the information which you seek.

Best Regards.
W.

[backman]

I don't believe that there was a national policy as such regarding married nurses,rather local policies decided by Matron and the hospital boards.As stated the wartime and post war pressures to recruit nurses meant that we could ill afford to lose nurses if they left to get married.I would suspect that some hospitals may have relaxed their rules in the 1950s for just such reasons but not many.It was certainly common place into the mid 1960s for the married rule to still be applied,certainly my mother who trained in the 1960s in Peterborough still needed matrons permission to train as she was married with children!
I believe the change was gradual from the mid 60s and was reinforced by the major reorganisation of hospital management in the Salmon report which was circa 1965-66??? Can anyone confirm this theory?

[backman]

Have had the opportunity to quickly look through the Nursing record books for Great Yarmouth Hospital for the 1950s and there are one or two married nurses logged in as such.One is accepted for student nurse training as a Mrs in 1954, however it may be that she was of course widowed,possibly during the war? There are several nurses who cite marriage as being the reason for leaving but once again it is unclear if this was Hospital policy that they must leave(I suspect it was?)