01 January 2012

Newly open UK nurse records in the Queen's Roll

Appreciated less than they deserve by family historians are professional organization files. In a blog post from the Wellcome Library on files becoming open on 1 January 2012 is this promising looking item for those with a nurse active in the UK in the early 20th century.

"Two items from the Queen's Nursing Institute (SA/QNI): a volume of the Queen's Roll, on which inspections of nurses were recorded, covering 1926-1927; and - from the card index that replaced the original bound Roll - a microfilm of nurses' records on cards from 1907 to 1927."
If you're researching a nurse of the period it may help to read a short article "The Archive of the Queen's Nursing Institute in the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre" by Shirley Dixon available as a pdf at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1044254/pdf/medhist00015-0109.pdf

It explains that the "Queen's Roll" giv(es) marital status, religious denomination, details of hospital training and nursing experience, district training, certificates and badges held, with what probably seemed a large amount of space for entries during her future career. It was found that it was insufficient space for all the details of the
working life of a long-serving nurse, and additional pages are attached with later
entries. From volume 12, which commences in July 1905, the size of volume is
greater, which gave the opportunity for a change in layout. More detail is given
of the nurse's background, including father's occupation and her own previous
occupation (all Queen's Nurses were female until 1946).

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