Commonwealth Nurses and

Midwives Conference,

March 12-13, 2016, London

Nightingale and the Nursing Leaders She Mentored

Lynn McDonald, PhD, LLD (hon.)

director, Collected Works of Florence

Nightingale (2001-12, 16 vols)

former MP, author, Non-smokers’ Health Act,

1988, Canada’s pioneering law to provide

smoke-free work and public places, 1988

Climate change activist

16 volumes

Collected Works of

Florence

Nightingale

the editor with

the volumes

all available also

as ebooks

the documents

are digitized on

a website

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Fame from the Crimean War 1854-56

Major founder of modern nursing

Social scientist, first woman Fellow of the

Royal Statistical Society

Pioneer of evidence-based health care

Pioneer environmental health theorist (from

the lessons of the Crimean War)

Hospital conditions in her day

Death rates per admissions, at London

teaching hospitals were around 10%, when

her nursing school opened in 1860

Death rates in the Crimean War hospitals

rose to about 40% in the worst months of the

war (early 1855)

The background to her work

The Nightingale School

At St Thomas’ Hospital, London

Opened 1860, secular, for pupils of any faith

or none at all (Nightingale a woman of faith,

Christian, and many nurses were – but the

school open to all)

The base for her mentoring, pupils at end of

year, and visitors from other countries

Vol. 12 in CWFN

series, with letters

to matron and nurses

at the “N School”

from its beginning

Picture of FN at

Claydon House,

Bucks, on an

annual outing

with the tutor, Mary

Crossland, and Sir

Harry Verney, chair

of the Nightingale

Fund Council, which

paid for the school

Method of Mentoring

First meeting at end of year’s training --

occasional meetings after, letter exchanges,

letters of reference for jobs

Visible support on starting matron’s position

– Nightingale sent flowers by commissionaire

Concerted support when under investigation

Some examples, out of a large number……..

Matrons at British Hospitals

Angelique-Lucille Pringle, matron at the

Royal Edinburgh Infirmary, later at St T., from

Edinburgh teams to other Scottish hospitals

Alice Fisher, matron at Addenbrooke’s,

Birmingham, Radcliffe Infirmary and Blockley

Hospital, Philadelphia

Jane Styring: to Montreal General, Bart’s,

Marylebone Workhouse, matron, St Mary’s

Visitors from Other Countries

Nightingale met with nurses/matrons from

other countries for short-term stays at St

Thomas’ Hospital

Arranged for them to spend time at leading

hospitals, e.g., Edinburgh Royal Infirmary,

Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary, Highgate, St

Marylebone

St Bartholomew’s, London

Maria Machin, after Montreal General,

matron at St Bartholomew’s, London (hostile

environment to trained nursing)

An ancient hospital, like St Thomas’, top

medical staff, e.g. Sir James Paget

But slow to employ trained nurses and to

train nurses

Matrons at other UK Hospitals

Mary Juliana Pyne, Westminster

Flora Masson, Radcliffe Infirmary, later at the

Homerton Fever Hospital,

Rachel Williams, after assistant at Edinburgh

R.I., matron at St Mary’s, Paddington

Frances E. Spencer, matron at both

Edinburgh and St Thomas’ (after Pringle)

Helen Blower, after Mtl, Royal Southern, Liv.

Workhouse Infirmaries

Agnes Jones, Liverpool Workhouse

Infirmary, died on the job in 1868

Mary Cadbury, after Highgate and Liverpool,

matron at Sheffield and Queen’s Hospital,

Birmingham

Amelia P. de Laney, St Marylebone and

Birmingham

Izalina Huguenin, matron Liverpool 1880-

District Nursing (Home Visiting)

Florence Lees, later Craven, “invented”

method for home visiting nursing (FN

godmother of a son), supt. Metropolitand and

National Assoc.

Amy Sarah Hughes, supt M&N, Bolton

Workhouse Infirmary, later supt., Queen

Victoria Jubilee nurses and in Australia

Katharine I. Persse, Liverpool

Matrons at Irish Hospitals

Jessie Lennox, Belfast Children’s Hospital

Ellen Notcutt, Royal Hospital, Belfast

Louisa Franks, Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin

Sarah E. Hampson, Rotunda Hosp., Dublin

Susan Beresford, Sir Patrick Duns Hosp.

Helen Shuter, City of Dublin Hosp.

Military Nurses

Margaret Augusta Fellowes, Transvaal and

Egyptian campaigns, matron in WW I

hospital, London

Sybil Airy, supt York County Hosp, Egyptian

campaign, matron Royal Victoria Hospital,

Bournemouth

Anne E. Caulfield, Egypt campaign, supt.

Herbert Hospital, Woolwich

Helen C. Norman, Egypt, matron QAIMNS

Matrons at Chronic-care Hospitals

Ulrike N. Linicke, after Irish hospitals, matron

at Royal Hosp. for Incurables, Putney

Amelia de Laney, after workhouse

appointments, matron at Epileptic Home

Matrons Visiting at St Thomas’

From the U.S.: Linda Richards (matron at

numerous hospitals, later in Japan)

Isabel Hampton, to Johns Hopkins Univ.

Hospital, author of major nursing textbook

From Canada: Charlotte MacLeod, after

Waltham Hospital, Boston, matro

n, Victorian Order of Nurses, Ottawa; Louise

Darche (supt Blackwell’s Island, New York)

Elizabeth R. Scovil, supt. In New York

European

From Germany: Charlotte Helmsdorfer and

Frl von Cornberg

From Sweden: Emmy Rappe and Alfhild

Ehrenborg

From Finland: Ellen Ekblom, Sophie

Mannerheim

Vol. 13 in

CWFN series

covers her work

mentoring nurses

in U.K. hospitals

and around the

world, with bios

of nursing leaders

typically ignored

In UK nursing

histories

Troubled Matrons

Styring: “father failed, mother dead,

grandmother insane”

De Laney, broken health when at the

Epileptic Home; when at Birmingham, it was

the “best managed workhouse in the

kingdom, partly because of Miss de Laney.”

For stressed-out matrons, Nightingale

organized time off, rest, a holiday, gifts

Matrons under Investigation

Lucy Osburn, Sydney Hospital, Royal

Commission investigation (Windeyer letter)

Eva Luckes, London Hospital, a House of

Lords Select Committee

Flora Masson, Radcliffe Infirmary, complaint

of staff to administration – forced out from

prejudice and ignorance

Rachel Williams, St Mary’s, Paddington

Williams, at St Mary’s, Paddington

Rachel Williams eventually forced out, after a

lengthy investigation and much intervention

by Nightingale, dispute over salary

FN recruited a senior doctor, Sieveking, to

support and a governor, Lord Carlingford, but

governors decided she had been dishonest;

FN got a delay to permit her to resign instead

of being dismissed

New Position for Williams

Williams volunteered for the Egypt Campaign

of 1885, became superintendent in Cairo

Nightingale arranged for new uniforms, paid

for from Nightingale Fund, showing officer

status (scarlet tippets and cap)

Great send-off at St Mary’s: Williams cheered

as she left! On her return got a letter in the

Times published on her experience

Mentoring through Life

Nurses and matrons visited Nightingale and

wrote her until her advanced old age

Massive amounts of material available,

especially of letters BY nurses and matrons

TO Nightingale (she kept them)

Many volumes of material missing – attic?

basement somewhere? Wardroper, Vincent

Books, articles, theses to be written! Sources

on my website, digitized

Where is Nightingale now?

Statue at Glasgow Royal

Infirmary, storage area,

at beginning of the

Collected Works project

with traffic cone

and pop bottle

Statue moved to

Front lobby of Glasgow

Royal Infirmary, next

To bronze relief of

Lord Lister, who

pioneered antiseptic

surgery at that hospital