For 150 years, up and down the country, from large cities to rural areas
and the remotest islands and highlands, district nurses have been
visiting the sick in their own homes. Here they have provided
healthcare, and given moral support and advice to people of all ages the
length and breadth of Britain.
Follow the story of how, in the 1860s, the Liverpool philanthropist
William Rathbone VI set up an experiment in home nursing in his home
city, aimed at providing care for the poor who had no access to proper
medical attention. His scheme resulted in the establishment of district
nursing as a profession, and the inauguration of the Queen Victoria
Jubilee Institute for Nurses.
Take a journey through the growth of the district nursing movement
movement, of the expansion of services into school nursing and health
visiting in 1891, through nursing and pastoral care during the First and
Second World Wars, and learn how, periodically, the district nurse has
provided maternity and midwifery services.
This illustrated history of district nursing provides a unique insight
into the role played by members of this branch of the nursing
profession, and demonstrates how the nurses have been the backbone of
the community, providing the public with a wide range of invaluable
healthcare services.
