Liverpool Training School and Home for Nurses

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The origins of the Queen's Nurse and District Nursing begin following the Golden Jubilee in 1887 of Queen Victoria. She gave £70,000 to establish a national scheme of district nursing for the sick poor of the United Kingdom. William Rathbone of Liverpool, a Liberal MP had devised a scheme whereby the city of Liverpool was divided into several districts and a nurse was appointed to each district to offer nursing to the sick poor. Hence the name ‘district nurse’. Eventually his training and education programme in the local Liverpool Infirmary produced a fully trained nurse capable of practicing as either a ward sister, a private nurse, district nurse or Bible nurse. The duel training of state registered nurse and Queen’s Nurse continued until the National Health Service Act of 1946 took effect in 1948. The Rathbone/ Nightingale scheme was approved in July 1888 and a Provisional Committee set up with the Duke of Westminster as Chairman and Mr Rathbone as Honorary Secretary. The Master of St Katherine's Community, the Reverend Arthur Lewis Babbington Peile, was made President of the Jubilee Institute, and the headquarters was over the Chapter House at St Katherine's in Regent's Park. (The link whereby the Master of St. Katherine's was also the head of the Institute was formally broken in 1904.) It was hoped that funds from St Katherine's would augment those of the Institute. In 1889 Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses (QVJIN) was incorporated by Royal Charter. The aims of the Institute were to apply the Queen's gift to training nurses in district work in order to supply affiliated nursing associations with thoroughly equipped workers and to put in place a body to supervise the work. The Metropolitan and National Nursing Association, established in 1876, was adopted as the central training home. District Nursing Associations were invited to apply for affiliation to the Institute. . District nursing associations employing other than Queen's Nurses could affiliate to a County Nursing Association. Also in 1919, the Nurses Registration Act set up the General Nursing Council, with responsibility for setting up a register of nurses and for approving training schools. Iin 1928 the Institute's name was changed to `The Queen's Institute of District Nursing'; and in 1936 a new Midwives Act required provision of midwives for the whole country, with many new Nursing Associations formed to provide both midwifery and nursing services. Following the Second World War, in 1947 the Institute was approved by the Ministry of Health to give Health Visitor training for the Royal Sanitary Institute certificate. In 1948 the National Health Service was established and provident schemes became redundant. Local health authorities were responsible for the organisation of the district nursing service, either employing nurses directly or using the voluntary organisations. Subsequent negotiations enabled Local Health Authorities providing a direct service to enter into membership of the Queen's Institute. District nursing associations no longer had to pay the nurses' salaries, but continued to play a role in the running of the training homes. The NHS Act made no provision for district nurse training; in 1953 the Report of the Ministry of Health working party on the training of District Nurses (the Armer Report) accepted the need for district nurses to be trained to a national standard, but recommended only 3-4 months training (the Institute representatives dissented from this last point). In 1959, following the Report of the Training Advisory Council set up in 1957 to advise the Minister of Health, a Panel of Assessors set up; the Institute syllabus and examination arrangements were approved and from 1960, all successful candidates were awarded the National Certificate of District Nursing. By 1966 the National Certificate was felt to be sufficiently established for the award of Queen's Certificate and badge to be discontinued after midsummer 1968. In 1973 the Institute's name was changed again, to `The Queen's Nursing Institute'. The Institute is still very active today in promoting every aspect of district nursing including offering awards for outstanding achievement in this profession.