“An unsuitable job for a woman? Gender and mental health nursing.”

On the evening of Wednesday 12th May 1920 a demonstration took place in the city of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire. According to the ‘Wakefield Express,’ a large procession with banners flying, and with the city’s band at its head, marched through the streets of Wakefield to the Green Market, where a large crowd had assembled. Two lorries acted as platforms for a series of speakers. Speakers on the platform included union officials, local councillors and representatives from the Discharged Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Association. Mr GW Newsome, secretary of the Wakefield branch of the National Asylum Workers’ Union (NAWU), proposed the following motion, ‘That this mass meeting … deplores the continued employment of female labour in male wards at the West Riding Mental Hospital – work which prior to the war was performed by men.

Charlotte Seymour Yapp

Charlotte Seymour Yapp was born in October 1879, in Ardwick, Manchester, to Moses Yapp, a railway guard, and his wife, Sophia (nee Seymour), a seamstress. She trained as a nurse at Aston Union Poor Law Infirmary at Erdington, near Birmingham, completing her training in 1903. She then gained her certificate in midwifery, did private work and worked as an infant health inspector in Lancashire. An active member of the Poor Law Nursing Association, posts followed in Keighley, Halifax, York, West Hartlepool and Tynemouth before her appointment, in 1914, as Matron of the Lake Hospital, Ashton-under-Lyne. She remained there for the rest of her career until she resigned, through ill health, in 1925. She died in 1934

‘It turned us yellow all over.’ Health Care Provision for Munition Workers During the First World War

Although much has been written about the vital role played by both women and men in producing munitions during the First World War and the impact that this had on their health, less is known about the provision of health and nursing care to this workforce. This article discusses a study which aims to increase understanding of the ways in which heath care was provided for those working in the munition factories and the contribution that nurses made to this

Sister Minnie Wood (continued)

This article updates the 2016 article about this nurse and her career

Training mental health nurses in the United Kingdom– a historical overview. Part Two: 1948 onwards

Mental health nursing in the United Kingdom (UK) has developed as, and continues to be, a distinct area of nursing practice. Unlike countries such as the USA, the UK has never embraced the generic model for nursing and it is still possible to train and be registered as a nurse in four separate fields – general, mental health, learning disability and children’s nursing. In this article the history of the training of those who specialised in mental health nursing is considered and discussed. The content of this training is analysed as is the changing, and often contentious ideas, about what the knowledge base of mental health nursing practice should be. The influences on this are also discussed, particularly the role of medicine (psychiatrists) and general nursing. This article covers the period after 1948 and the introduction of the British National Health Service until the present

Sister Catherine Black: ‘King’s nurse, Beggar’s nurse.’

Sister Catherine Black had a long and interesting nursing career. She worked as a nurse throughout the First World War, both on the home front (where she worked with the pioneering plastic surgeon, Harold Gillies)and in base hospitals and casualty clearing stations on the Western Front. Towards the end of her career, she became the private nurse of King George V, nursing him until his death in 1935. This article gives an overview of her life and nursing career

'Rekindling the Desire to Live.' Nursing Men Following Facial Injury and Surgery during the First World War

This article discusses the role of nurses in caring for men following wartime facial injury and surgery during and immediately after World War One. Although much has been written about the pioneering work that was done in the field of plastic surgery (most famously by Dr Harold D Gillies, and his team) less is known about the nurses who worked alongside him, who he himself acknowledged, “have borne the brunt of the work.” (Gillies, 1920). This article aims to increase understanding of the ways in which nurses working in this speciality attempted to ameliorate their patients’ psychological wounds as well as their physical ones