Timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand

The timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand stretches from the 19th century to the present.

19th century

1810s

1811 – The opening of Sydney Hospital. Convict men and women undertook the nursing.^[1]^[2]

1820s

Sydney hospital attended the site^{[clarification needed]} of the first public hospital in Australia, the Rum Hospital, which was first opened and completed in July 1820s.^{[citation needed]}

1830s

1838 – The first trained nurses arrive in Sydney, five Irish Sisters of Charity.^[1]

1840s

1840 – Settlement of New Zealand as a colony and the establishment of state hospitals.^[1]
1841 – People considered to be mentally ill were considered criminals. The first case of insanity in New Zealand's society was recorded in 1841 (Papps, E, 2002).
1847 – Wellington Hospital was established, The first New Zealand Hospital. ^[3]
1848 – The Yarra Bend Asylum was opened so that those mentally ill could be moved out of gaol. This Asylum was later known as Melbourne.^[4]

1850s

1852 – Ex-convict Bathsheba Ghost appointed Matron of Sydney Infirmary.^[5]
1854 – The first lunatic asylum was built, in Wellington, New Zealand.^[1]
1857 – Sisters of Charity under Mother Mary Baptist De Lacy established St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.
1860–1883 – Approximately 16,378 single women emigrated to New Zealand; 582 identified their occupation as a nurse, monthly nurse, sick nurse, trained nurse, nurse girl, midwife, hospital nurse or professional nurse. Orchard, S. (1997). More ‘ woman of good character': Nurses who came to New Zealand as immigrant settlers.^[6]
1868 – Lucy Osburn and her four Nightingale nurses arrived at Sydney Infirmary (to become Sydney Hospital). They soon start the first nursing school.^[1]

1870s

1870 – New Zealand had 37 hospitals as a result of the population increase of the gold rush.^[7]

1880s

1885 – following the Hospital and Charitable Aids Act conditions improved.^[8]

1890s

1896 – Lady Lamington Nurses' Home, Brisbane, begun.
1899 – Australasian Trained Nurses' Association was founded in New South Wales.^[1]
1899–1902 – The years of the South African War. During the 1899–1902 South African (Boer) War, nurses from each state in Australia joined volunteer troops, serving as private citizens or with the British nursing forces.^[9] Prejudice meant that although hundreds of female nurses applied there was conflict with those already in the military. Few however did serve in South Africa.^[1]

20th century

1900s

c.1900 – The Private Hospital, Wakefield Street in Adelaide becomes the first training hospital for nurses in the colony of South Australia, under Alice Tibbits (1854–1932).^[10]
1901 – New Zealand is the first country to regulate nurses nationally, with adoption of the Nurses Registration Act

District nurses in Melbourne, 1904

1901 – Royal Victorian Trained Nurses' Association is formed.^[11]
1902 – Ellen Dougherty of New Zealand becomes the first registered nurse in the world on 10 February.
1902 – Australian Army Nursing Service formed.
1904 – Queen's Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital opened in Fairfield, initially as a 'fever' hospital.^[12]
1906 – Sisters of Mercy establish Mater Misericordiae Hospital, North Sydney.
1907 – Indigenous woman May Yarrowick receives nursing certificate in Sydney.
1907 – First of Karitane hospitals for training neonatal nurses opened in Dunedin.
1908 – Ākenehi Hei, of the Whakatohea and Whanau-a-Apanui tribes, was the first Maori registered nurse in New Zealand.^[13]
1908 – Kai Tiaki, the first New Zealand nursing journal, is published.^[14]
1909 – A new role called 'backblocks' nursing was introduced to New Zealand providing services to rural parts of the country^[15]

1910s

1910 – Ākenehi Hei, the first qualified Maori nurse in New Zealand, dies on 28 November 1910 after contracting typhoid from family members^[16] she was nursing.
1911 – New South Wales Bush Nursing Association founded.^[17]
1913 – Eileen O'Connor and Fr Ted McGrath found Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor to look after the Sydney sick poor at home.
1914 – Alice Gordon Elliott and Sister Janet Radcliffe are the first nurses to sail abroad to assist in World War One.^[18]

Alice Ross-King MM c. 1919

1915 – The New Zealand Army Nursing Service set up in 1915, largely at the urging of Hester Maclean (1863–1932).
1916 – Group of 20 Bluebirds depart Sydney for Western Front.
1916 – Narrelle Hobbes serves on Mesopotamian front.^[19]
1917 – Alice Ross-King and three other nurses awarded Military Medal for bravery in hospital bombing.
1918 – Death of Edith Blake when hospital ship Glenart Castle torpedoed.^[20]
1919 – Deaths of many nurses in the Spanish flu influenza pandemic.

1920s

1925 – New Zealand attempts to have a degree nursing programme available at the University of Otago.^[21]

1930s

1930 – Cecily Maude O'Connell founds Grey Sisters to look after poor mothers and children.
1936 – Sr Mary Gertrude establishes Derby Leprosarium.
1937 – Four Australian nurses serve in Spanish Civil War.^[22]
1938 – The New Zealand Social Security Act of 1938 marks the introduction of a comprehensive health system that mandated the provision of free care for all.^[1]
1939 – Registering of nursing aides commenced in New Zealand^[23]
1939–1945 – Australian and New Zealand nurses serve outside their countries in World War II.^[1]

1940s

1940 – Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service formed.
1942 – Banka Island massacre: Twenty-one Australian nurses, survivors of a bombed and sunken ship, are executed by bayonet or machine gun by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers on 16 February, with sole survivor Vivian Bullwinkel.

Remembering the Centaur sinking

1942 – Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service formed.
1943 – 11 Army nurses killed when hospital ship Centaur torpedoed off Queensland.
1945 – Native Nurses Training Scheme begun in some Queensland aboriginal settlements.^[24]
1945 – Muriel Knox Doherty works as matron at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation.
1946 – Rosalind Russell stars in biographical film Sister Kenny, portraying Elizabeth Kenny's treatment for polio.
1949 – Formation of the NSW College of Nursing.^[1]
1949 – Formation of College of Nursing, Australia^[25]

1950s

1954 – Betty Jeffrey's memoir White Coolies describes her captivity in Sumatra in World War II.

1960s

1963 – Sister Mary Bernice Elphick begins long term as head of St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.
1967 – New Zealand nursing undergo changes from being hospital-based apprenticeships to tertiary education institutions.^[26]
1967-1971 – 43 Australian army nurses serve in Vietnam War.^[27]^[28]

1970s

1971 – The Carpenter Report was released; a review released by New Zealand centred around the nursing education system, the report advocated training nurses in an educational environment. The government however decided that polytechs, not universities, were more appropriate for this; however the consequences of this were that nurses were only diploma level not degree level.^[1]
1973 – Christchurch and Wellington Polytechnics offer diploma-level nursing education; Massey and Victoria Universities (Wellington) start their post-registration bachelor's degrees.^[1]
1975 – First nursing diploma programme in Australia in a College of Advanced Education (CAE) in Melbourne, followed quickly by programs in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.^[29]

1980s

1980 – The Roper, Logan and Tierney model of nursing, based upon the activities of daily living, is published.
1983 – The importance of human rights in nursing is made explicit in a statement adopted by the International Council of Nurses.
1983 – UKCC becomes the profession's new regulatory body in the UK.
1988 – Anne Casey develops her child-centred nursing model while working as a paediatric oncology nurse in London.
1988 – Australian Critical Care journal founded.
1989 – Nurses' Health Study 2 begins.^[30]

1990s

1990 – Last student graduated from New Zealand hospital program.^[31]
1990 – Former nurse Lowitja O'Donoghue becomes inaugural chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
1992 – "Cultural safety" was made a requirement for nursing and midwifery education programs by the Nursing Council of New Zealand. Cultural safety allows effective nursing of patients and/or family members of those of another culture by a nurse who has reflected on one's own cultural identity and understands the impact of differing cultures in nursing practice and patient care.^[32]
1992 – The Australian and New Zealand national governments signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement. (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, 2010)^[33]
1992 – Jan Bassett's Guns and Brooches surveys the history of Australian Army nursing.^[34]
1996 – The Flight Nurse Association was created by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) to recognise the need of training and education of the same standards throughout New Zealand.^[35]

21st century

2000s

2000 – Review of undergraduate nursing education by New Zealand Nursing Council^[1]
2002 – Deborah Harris, New Zealand's first Nurse Practitioner.^[36]
2004 – The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (2003) Act comes into full power on 18 September, in New Zealand, these cover the requirements for nurses to have current competences relating to their scope of practice.^[37]
2005 – The Nursing Council of New Zealand published a comprehensive guideline on cultural safety in nursing education and practice.^[1]
2006 – SBS TV drama series RAN Remote Area Nurse portrays nursing in Torres Strait.
2010 – A national registration for all nurses and midwives comes into force in Australia in July 2010.^[33]
2010 – Nurses' Health Study 3 begins enrolling: Female RNs, LPNs, and nursing students 20–46 are encouraged to join this long-term women's health study. Study remains open until 100,000 nurses are enrolled.^[30]
2010 – Sisters of War telemovie portrays Australian nurses captured in Rabaul in World War II.
2012 – Australian College of Nursing formed from amalgamation of earlier bodies.
2014 – TV drama series ANZAC Girls portrays nurses in World War I.
2016 – Murder of remote area nurse Gayle Woodford in APY Lands.^[38]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Crisp & Taylor, 2009
^ Crisp & Taylor (2009) Fundamentals of Nursing, Milestones in Nursing History: Elsevier, Australia. (3rd Ed., Ch, 1, pp 4.) Pub. Houstan, L.
^ Giselle's Journal, http://mylittleculturediary.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/first-new-zealand-hospital-labyrinth.html (Barber, L., & Towers, R. (1976). Wellington Hospital 1847–1976. Wellington: Wellington Hospital Board.)
^ Crisp, J., & Taylor, C. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing (3rd ed., p.4), Chatswood, Australia: Elsevier Australia
^ Godden, Judith (2004). "Bathsheba Ghost, Matron of the Sydney Infirmary 1852-66: A Silenced Life". Labour History. 87: 49–63. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
^ during the period 1860 to 1883. In N.Chick & J.Rodgers (Eds.) Looking back, moving forward: Essays in the history of New Zealand nursing and midwifery (pp. 5–16).
^ (Potter and Perry's fundamentals of nursing. Crisp & Taylor, 2009, page 4
^ (MacDonald,1990)
^ Daly, J. Jackson, D. Speedy, S. (2010). Contexts of nursing (3rd ed.). Chatswood, NSW 2067. Australia. Cecotti,L.
^ Lyon, E. E. (May 1977). "Short history of PHWS (Private Hospital, Wakefield Street)". The Australasian Nurses Journal. 6 (10): 18. ISSN 0301-018X. PMID 329829.
^ Dock, Short History, p 268
^ "Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital (previously known as Queen's Memorial Hospital/Fever Hospital 1890–1918; Queen's Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital 1919–1947; Fairfield Hospital 1948–1969; Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital (1970–1996)". Public Record Office Victoria Collection – PROV. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
^ "Māori nurses – Women's health – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand". teara.govt.nz.
^ "History of Nursing in New Zealand". Health Times.
^ Wood, P.J. (2008). "Professional, practice and political issues in the history of New Zealand's remote rural 'backblocks' nursing: The case of Mokau, 1910–1940". Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession. 30 (2): 168–178. doi:10.5172/conu.673.30.2.168. PMID 19040383. S2CID 31765864.
^ Dow, D. (2009). Remembering the unsung heroines. New Zealand Doctor, 36.
^ O'Neill, Teresa M. (2015). "A Vision for the Bush: The NSW Bush Nursing Association 1911–1974". Nursing History Review. Retrieved 29 May 2024 – via ProQuest.
^ "Sister Alice Gordon Elliott nee King (1886 - 1977)". Libraries Tasmania. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
^ Oppenheimer, Melanie (2006). Oceans of Love: Narrelle, an Australian nurse in World War I. Sydney: ABC Books. ISBN 9780733317101.
^ Vane-Tempest, Krista (2021). Edith Blake's War. Sydney: UNSW Press. ISBN 9781742237398.
^ Crisp, Taylor, Douglas & Rebeiro, 2013
^ Keene, Judith (1988). The Last Mile to Huesca: An Australian nurse in the Spanish Civil War. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 9780868403380.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Best, Odette (2015). "Training the 'natives' as nurses in Australia: So what went wrong?" (PDF). In Sweet, Helen; Hawkins, Sue (eds.). Colonial Caring: A history of colonial and post-colonial nursing. Manchester University Press. pp. 104–125. ISBN 9780719099700.
^ Smith, Russell G. (1999). In Pursuit of Nursing Excellence. A History of the Royal College of Nursing, Australia 1949–99. Various libraries: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-551051-8.
^ Adlam, K; Dotchin, M.; Hayward, S. (2009). "Nursing first year of practice, past, present and future: documenting the journey in New Zealand". Journal of Nursing Management. 17 (5): 570–575. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2008.00932.x. PMID 19575715.
^ Brayley, Annabelle (2017). Our Vietnam Nurses. Melbourne: Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780143785798.
^ Biedermann, Narelle (2004). Tears on My Pillow: Australian nurses in Vietnam. Milsons Point: Random House. ISBN 9781740511995.
^ Crisp, J., Taylor, C., Douglas, C., & Rebeiro, G. (2013)
^ ^a ^b Dave. "Home – Nurses' Health Study". nhs3.org.
^ Crisp & Taylor, 2009, p 4
^ Papps & Ramsden, 1996
^ ^a ^b Daly, J., Speedy, S., & Jackson, D. (2010). Contexts of Nursing. (3rd ed). Sydney, Australia: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier.
^ Bassett, Jan (1992). Guns and Brooches: Australian Army nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195533804.
^ "New Zealand Flight Nurses Association (NZNO)". nzno.org.nz.
^ "Our people". Waikato Newsroom. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014.
^ "Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act". Ministry of Health NZ.
^ Campbell, Claire; Keane, Daniel (15 April 2021). "Coronial inquest into Gayle Woodford murder urges better protection for outback nurses". ABC News. Retrieved 3 November 2024.

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Crisp, J., Taylor, C., Douglas, C., Rebeiro, G. (2013). Potter & Perry's fundamentals of nursing (4th ed.). Elsevier Australia.
Dingwall, Robert, Anne Marie Rafferty, Charles Webster. An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (Routledge, 1988)
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Papps, E., (2002). Nursing in New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Pearson Education New Zealand.
Papps, E., & Ramsden, I. (1996). International Journal for Quality Healthcare. Vol 8, No 5, pp. 491–497
Wood, Pamela J. and Maralyn Foureur. "Exploring the maternity archive of the St Helens Hospital, Wellington, New Zealand, 1907–22," in New Directions in the History of Nursing: International Perspectives ed by Barbara Mortimer and Susan McGann. (Routledge, 2004) pp 179–93 online