Nurse Training

Material relating to the training of nurses at Crichton Royal Hospital.

1931-1972

1 box

The education and training of psychiatric nurses was a significant function of Crichton Royal Institution throughout its history. The first Physician Superintendent, Dr W. A. F. Browne, delivered a series of 30 weekly lectures on mental disease in 1854. The lectures ran from October 1854 to May 1855 and were attended by nursing staff and other interested parties. Within the hospital rules and regulations were issued to attendants caring for patients outlining their duties, responsibilities and how they were expected to behave, but there was no formal qualification for nurses until the end of the nineteenth century. Nationally the development of psychiatric nurse training progressed with the production of a book, 'Handbook for the Instruction of Attendants of the Insane', in 1885, by a sub-committee of the Medico-Psychological Association comprising a group Scottish Superintendents, to aid staff working in the field of mental health. From 1891 the Medico-Psychological Association started to organise examinations as part of a national training scheme for nurses employed in hospitals for the mentally ill. This national qualification was known as the Medico-Psychological Association Certificate of Proficiency in Nursing. The first list of nurses who attained the qualification and were placed on the Association's Register of Nurses was published in 1892 and included seventeen nurses who gained their certificate at Crichton Royal Institution. Training was carried out in individual hospitals with senior medical and nursing staff delivering lectures and examinations were held twice yearly in May and November. Further advances in the training of psychiatric nurses at Crichton Royal include the creation of the post of Sister Tutor in 1935 and the establishment of a Preliminary Training School with a block system of training in 1945. In addition, advanced courses for certified nurses were introduced as well as refresher courses. Crichton Royal Hospital School of Nursing attracted students from all over the world. In 1971 the South West College of Nursing was formed after the nursing schools of Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and Crichton Royal Hospital amalgamated with the new College based at Crichton Hall.

A ticket for a series of nursing lectures delivered by Dr W. A. F. Browne at Crichton Royal Institution in 1854 can be found in Recreation and Printing Scrapbook , DGH1/6/17/2

Enquiries for reproduction for commercial purposes should be directed to the Archivist, Dumfries and Galloway Archives and Local Studies

The papers are available at Dumfries and Galloway Archives subject to conditions of UK Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and NHS Records Management Code of Practice 2012. Subject to these restrictions, this material is being digitised by the University of Glasgow as part of a Wellcome Trust funded project. Material that is digitised will be accessed freely online through the Wellcome Library catalogue.