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Promoting the health of Europeans in a rapidly changing world: a historical study of the implementation of World Health Organisation policies by the Nursing and Midwifery Unit, European Regional Office, 1970-2003 The World Health Organisation (WHO) was inaugurated in 1948. Formed in a period of post-war devastation, WHO aimed to develop and meet goals that would rebuild the health of shattered populations. The historical study reported here examined the work of the Nursing and Midwifery Unit (NMU) of WHO's European Regional Office during the later part of the twentieth century. The study examined archive sources lodged at the NMU archive. The sources included manuscripts relating to important NMU initiatives, reports and papers published by WHO, and a range of secondary sources. The study identified three main driving forces in the work of the NMU of the European Regional Office of WHO. One of the strongest of these was a drive to develop and promote the nursing profession within the countries of the European Region. The second was the promulgation and implementation of the positive public health strategies of WHO, particularly its '38 Targets for Health for All by the Year 2000'. The third focussed on securing equity across the European continent and on promoting the development of the nursing professions in poorer and less-developed countries. The study concludes that the nursing professions in European states grew in strength and influence, and that the health of populations improved throughout the continent between 1970 and 2003. It discusses the extent to which the role of the NMU in these advances may have been significant., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Aim: To describe the life and work of the international nurses of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and to examine their role in relation to their contribution to Spanish nursing in this period. Methods: This historical study is based primarily on the memoirs of the international nurses who joined the war health services of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The evidence that was elicited from these sources was compared and contrasted with other contemporary documents in order to compare their perspectives with those of other contemporaries. Results: The nurses of the International Brigades joined the front line health services as part of the mobile medical and surgical teams that were attached to the fighting units. They lived and worked under extreme conditions, often under fire. Their work while in Spain was not limited to care delivery but also included managerial and educational aspects. The international nurses' observations of Spanish nursing at the time were not always accurate, which might be explained by a lack of contact with qualified Spanish nursing staff due to a shortage of fully qualified nurses. Conclusion: In the absence of the voices of the Spanish nurses themselves, the written records of the international nurses were invaluable in analyzing Spanish nursing in this period. Their testimonies are, in essence, the international nurses' legacy to the Spanish nurses who stayed behind after the departure of the International Brigadists in 1938. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This historical study aims to refine understanding of the nature of nursing work. The study focuses on the 1880 crisis at Guy's Hospital in London to examine the nature and meaning of nursing work, particularly the concept of nursing work as many 'little things.' In this paper, an examination of Margaret Lonsdale's writing offers an original contribution to our understanding of the ways in which nursing work differs from medical practice. In this way, we use the late-nineteenth-century controversy at Guy's Hospital as a prism through which to examine the contested nature of nursing work. Lonsdale's ideas are corroborated by examination of writings by nurse leaders Florence Nightingale and Eva Luckes. Luckes, in particular, elaborated what was meant by nursing as the performance of a thousand little things, which are specific to nursing work. While physicians had been performing much of what was considered to be nursing work, nurses developed some of these and other interventions into a unique body of work characterized by meticulous attention to significant details. Some implications regarding current nursing practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Diploma in Community Nursing at the University of Manchester began in 1959, after a long period of planning and negotiation. It was the earliest pre-registration nursing education programme in a British university. The paper reports on a historical study which examined its foundation and development. The history of the ‘Manchester Scheme’, as it came to be known, is placed into the context of wider reforms and modifications in British nursing education. The methods used for the study were a broad-based literature review, examination of material from the 1950s to the present day, five oral history interviews with some of those who were influential in developing the diploma, and the interpretation of relevant documentary source materials. The Diploma in Community Nursing at the University of Manchester was important and innovative in its time, combining as it did nurse and health visitor training with a university-based education. The paper traces the struggle to establish the course, which was largely due to the efforts of one charismatic individual, Fraser Brockington, Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine. It then goes on to examine the reforms and modifications the programme underwent from 1959 to 1969, as it was developed into the prototype for the ‘Bachelor of Nursing Degree’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, policies on health recognise the importance of supporting healthcare professionals if they are to realise their potential for delivering quality services. Little is known about how nurses working in hospitals cope with caring for dying people and, hence how they might be best supported in this work.This paper reports a qualitative study informed by phenomenological philosophy, which developed a theory of how newly qualified nurses cope with caring for dying people in acute hospital medical wards. On the basis of the theory, interventions are proposed that could help support nurses in their work with dying people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The number of community staff nurses working in district nursing teams in the UK has increased in recent years as a result of organizational and educational initiatives such as skill mix and the Diploma in Professional Studies in Nursing (Project 2000). • Although the wider economic, philosophical and educational arguments for the role creation has been discussed in the literature, little has been written on the reality of the role from the viewpoint of the staff nurse or the relationship between the role and service requirements. The researchers conducted 16 interviews with district staff nurses from two NHS Trusts. The interpretation was guided by phenomenology and focused on the subjective perceptions of the nurses. • The data revealed dissatisfaction with their role among this group of staff nurses. Having been given a considerable degree of autonomy and responsibility as staff nurses in the hospital setting, they found that their role was limited and their skills ‘suppressed’ in the community. • They recognized that nurses in ‘F’, ‘G’ and ‘H’ Grades had greater experience and more education than they, yet they believed that they had the ability to participate more in the assessment and planning of care than was currently permitted. • They saw two factors as being mainly implicated in limiting their role: the tendency of district nurses to want to retain their ‘authority’ as assessors of care; and the Trust policy guidelines, which were somewhat inflexible on this issue. D Grade nurses also expressed their need for continuing education and support and for clearer career opportunities. • Although these data cannot be generalized to the population of staff nurses as a whole, the authors make tentative suggestions relating to the insights which may be taken from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the periodization that the author would like to propose for nursing. First, nursing is based less on knowledge than on ethics and values. The heroic era is the time in which the role of the nurse was to fight battles. The third period was the professionalizing era in which the abortive attempt to forge a knowledge base took place. She suggests that the most effective means by which nursing can lay claim to its own identity is to step back from society's expectations.