9 December 2020
Today, December 9, marks the 100th anniversary of the first Nurses’ Registration Act of South Australia. The Act created a system of professional licensure and regulation of the professions of nurses, mental health nurses and midwives in the public interest.
Prior to 1920, nurses received certificates from the hospitals where they trained, the Australasian Trained Nurses Association or the Royal British Nurses Association.
After 1920 all qualified nurses were registered and issued with a badge by the Nurses Board of South Australia (NBSA).
The Children’s Hospital, which opened in North Adelaide in 1879, offered the first formal training for nurses in a one-year course. Nurses received a small wage and accommodation and a hospital certificate on completion. Over the next 40 years other public and private hospitals offered similar on-the-job training. In 1892 the period of training was extended to three years.
After the 1920 Act, conditions for nurses changed little for many years.
“Various factors contributed to this state of affairs. Doctors were leaders in the health service and nurses looked to them for leadership in nursing affairs also,’’ said retired nurse educator Joan Durdin during her speech at the Foundation Day Ceremony at the old RAH in 1986.
“They accepted their own status as dedicated workers. Conservatism, reverence for tradition, and loyalty within the ranks set limits to the degree to which change was possible. The economy also set constraints. The Depression in the 1930s affected employment of nurses, as it affected other citizens, and those who obtained work recognised their good fortune and were not ready to agitate.’’
Ms Durdin led the first higher education program in SA at Sturt College of Advanced Education and was herself a former President of the (then) Royal Australian Nursing Federation (RANF) and now a celebrated nurse historian and author.
“The contribution of nurses to the armed services during both world wars brought added status to the profession,’’ Ms Durdin said.
“Eulogistic remarks about nurses were made during the debate on the Nurses’ Act in 1920. In the Second World War nurses from this state, including many from Royal Adelaide Hospital, became aware of conditions for nurses in other parts of the country through their close association with interstate nursing colleagues. After the war there was a greater interest in bringing about changes in the economic status of nurses.’’
During World War I, despite equal rank, the Army paid female nursing officers about half what the male officers received.
The bravery and resilience of nurses and women generally at home and abroad during World War II helped to alter public perception of a woman’s role in society. Indeed, it was former Prime Minister John Curtin who noted in 1943: “I see no reason why a woman should be paid less than a man for the same work’’.
“Another change to which nurses were alerted at this time was the proliferation of careers within the health service,’’ Ms Durdin said in her speech. “Nurses became aware of the need to be better prepared for their own role. Post-basic courses were a means to this end, and nurses from Royal Adelaide hospital were among those who raised funds to finance the post basic programmes, and those who took the first courses.
“Through the 1960s and 1970s the drive for recognition by women, with claims for equal pay and equal employment opportunities, gave encouragement to nurses to press more strongly for changes in nursing.
“In the 1970s the ‘Nursing Education Debate’ began, leading to the presentation of a policy on nursing education in 1976. This expressed nurses’ need for a more broadly based education which would equip the coming generation of nurses for their roles both in hospitals and in the community. Commitment to the nursing education issue gave nurses experience in political lobbying, an exercise in which they have continued to engage.’’
The Nurses’ Registration Act was repealed by the Nurses Act 1984, which was itself repealed by the Nurses Act 1999.
Following a formal request by the Federation to drop the ‘Royal’ from its name, the RANF became the Australian Nursing Federation (SA Branch) in 1988.
In 2010, the name of the organisation changed to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch), to include recognition of the unique role that midwives play in Australia’s health system.
Sources:
https://www.healthmuseumsa.org.au/menu/foundation-day/1986-history-nursing-education-and-jubilee-150/
https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/subjects/nursing
https://www.anmfsa.org.au/Web/About/Our_History/Web/Our%20history.aspx?hkey=71dbb27f-1063-41e9-9cf9-3252eddea24c