IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0505 BC AL330-336
Held at: Royal Holloway, University of London
Title: Nursing and Public Health at Bedford College
Date(s): 1896-1980s
Level of description: Series
Extent: 15 boxes
Name of creator(s): Bedford College
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Hygiene Course at Bedford College was established in 1896 under the encouragement of Dr Louis Parkes, Medical Officer of Health for Chelsea as he felt there was an opportunity for the training of women as hygiene inspectors. The course was recognised as being very academic and criticised as too academic for the role of hygiene inspector by some members of the medical establishment. In 1918, the Department of Hygiene was closed, but some of the staff transferred to the new Department of Social Studies where a course offering training to Health Visitors was offered. This course was again criticised as too academic and too rigorous as it was a one-year course rather than the six month minimum duration required by the Ministry of Health. However the course survived and had to adapt to meet the increasing requirements from the Ministry of Health.
In 1921, Bedford College partnered with the League of Red Cross Societies and the College of Nursing to offer courses in Public Health to international nursing students. The League of Red Cross Societies offered scholarships to qualified nurses from all over the world to study Public Health for a year in London. The students undertook academic lectures at Bedford College and completed practical work in hospitals around London and later further afield in Britain and mainland Europe. The students also had guest lecturers from other colleges including King's College, University College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 1925, a second course was introduced for nurse administrators and teachers in schools of nursing. The nurses lived at a residence owned by the League of Red Cross Societies at 15 Manchester Square.
In 1934, due to financial difficulties the League of Red Cross Societies withdrew from the administration of the courses and the Florence Nightingale International Foundation was established to raise funds and provide scholarships to nurses. In 1938 the courses were merged and allowed students to choose which subjects they wanted to study. 1939 proved to be the last year of the courses as they were cancelled in September due to the beginning of World War Two.
Nursing studies was not reintroduced at Bedford College until 1981. However, since the late 1960s students had been able to take a joint degree in Sociology with a qualification as a registered nurse in conjunction with the Royal Middlesex Hospital. The Nursing Studies course was a four year BSc degree course including a qualification as a State Registered Nurse. The course only had two intakes of students due to the suspension of the course following the merger of Bedford College with Royal Holloway. The possibility of relocating the course to Royal Holloway's Egham site was considered but due to the inability to find a suitable hospital to offer practical placements, the course was permanently discontinued. The final students graduated in 1986.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
This section contains papers relating to nursing and public health courses offered at Bedford College. The papers concern the administration of the courses including correspondence and minutes of committee meetings as well as a number of press clippings, pamphlets related to the course and sample certificates.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged by series relating to different courses. Separate series for different media including pamphlets and certificates.
Conditions governing access:
These papers have been digitised and are available to view at https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/. All records are open subject to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. All records containing personal information about individuals are subject to the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
These images are supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the College Archivist.
Finding aids:
These papers have been digitised and are available to view at https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The papers were transferred from the Bedford College Archives when the College merged with Royal Holloway in 1985.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Publication note:
- Brimblecombe, P. (2003). Historical perspectives on health: The emergence of the Sanitary Inspector in Victorian Britain. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 123(2), pp.124-131. - Davies, C. (1988). The Health Visitor as Mother's Friend: A Woman's place in public health, 1900-14. Social History of Medicine, 1(1), pp.39-59. - Fitzpatrick, J., While, A. and Roberts, J. (1993). The relationship between nursing and higher education. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 18(9), pp.1488-1497. - Lapeyre, J. and Nelson, S. (2010). The "Old Internationals": Canadian Nurses in an International Nursing Community. Nursing Leadership, 23(4), pp.33-44. - McGann, S. (2008). Collaboration and Conflict in International Nursing, 1920-39. Nursing History Review, 16(1), pp.29-57.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: May 2015