VPRS 17584 Nurses Board Annual Reporting Record Books

Full description

Administrative History on Nursing Education:

In circa 1859, Melbourne-Lying-In Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children (now The Royal Women's Hospital) commenced training in midwifery nursing. The Hospital established a formal three months certificate course in 1862 and a Gynaecology course in 1888. Up until 1993, these two training schemes were the platform of the nursing education programme; throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, midwifery and gynaecology training was extended, shortened, and re-shaped, to cope with the hospital's exigencies and changing government regulations.

The Women's became a centre for general nursing training during the 1940s and 1950s. This course had an emphasis in gynaecological nursing, but also included an external placement with another hospital, for the students to extend their training and experience in other areas of nursing.

A range of other training courses were conducted or facilitated by the hospital, responding to advancements in medical technology. These included: Neonatal Paediatrics; Cytotoxic Drug Therapy; Family Planning etc.

The Kathleen Syme Education Centre at The Royal Women's Hospital school closed in 1993 when the nursing courses in Midwifery, Gynaecology and Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing became university postgraduate qualifications rather than hospital based courses.

Series Description:

This series comprises the Nurses Board Annual Reporting Record Books.

The first two volumes run sequentially from 1942 to 1958 and hold the statistical data used for annual reporting to the Nurses' Board on the number of lectures given and attended for the hospital's Midwifery courses. The books also detail each student's marks in Infant Care, Obstetrics and State examinations. Part of the earlier volume includes the staff member's name with the lecture topic. The aggregate data was collated in a double page format with the following columns: date of commencement; student's name; date of completion; lecture attendance summary information under category of lectures e.g. Infant Care; summary of tests undertaken and percentage results under the headings Infant care, Midwifery and State.

The third book contains the raw data used to compile the statistics in the other two volumes. It was a tally book used to mark off (by strokes or ticks) each student's attendance against the lecture title. This book is divided into two halves, with the information throughout compiled in a double page column format. Up to 1949 only the hospital assessments are recorded, with the columns providing the following details: the date or month of commencement (not always provided); student's names according to each intake group (not alphabetical); the titles of the lectures across the top of the page and ticks marking the attendance of each student at each lecture. From March 1950 the State Examination group is listed for each student intake e.g. March State Trainees 1951. The lecture attendance is noted by a line or stroke against each lecture title.