To mark International Nurses Day 2022, we recognised and celebrated our Hospital’s rich nursing history. Those who trained as a nurse at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital (as it was known then) were invited to take part in our Nurses Roll Call to share their tales of nursing. We asked our community to tell us about their fondest memories and how their time as a trainee influenced them in their life and career.
From one nurse to another, it is a privilege to connect with our past nurse trainees who share the very special bond of having completed their training at “The Kids”.
As we celebrate International Nurses Day, what better way to mark the occasion than by recognising and celebrating all that our past nurse trainees have contributed and achieved.
While the training for our modern nursing workforce looks quite different today, many aspects of life as a nurse remain the same. Our nurses continue to bring comfort, relieve pain, fight infection and help our young patients and families feel that little bit less vulnerable.
I am sure you will find your own stories within these images and I invite you to take a moment to reflect upon these very special and heartfelt memories.
ACH in 1879
The Adelaide Children’s Hospital, whose foundation stone was laid in 1878, was the first hospital to offer formal training for nurses in a one-year course. Nurses received a small wage and accommodation plus a hospital certificate upon completion. Over the following decades, many public hospitals went on to offer similar on the job training with a few lectures.
The new Queen’s Home in Rose Park provided maternity care originally for married women from low-income families. This would later be renamed in 1939 as the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital. The annual report for the Home’s first year of operation showed that 80 patients were admitted and 80 babies were born, rising to 154 births the following year.
Twenty two nurses photographed prior to leaving South Australia during World War I. These nurses were tendered a farewell at the Edith Cavell Army Nurses' Clubrooms, North Terrace, on 20 December 1916. Image credit: State Library of South Australia, PRG280/1/9/60, 1916.
Many nurses who trained and worked at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and Queen’s Home provided important medical assistance during World War One which lasted until 1918. There was initial reluctance to sign up our nurses, experienced in working with children and birthing women, as it was felt they might not cope with the stresses of war-time service. These misconceptions did not last and our nurses made a significant contribution, saving the lives of countless wounded Australians. So too did the nurses who stayed behind to continue their work at the Hospital.
The ACH Registered Nurse badges awarded pre and post 1976.
After 1920 all qualified nurses were registered and issued with a badge by the Nurses Board of South Australia (NBSA). At The Children’s, the registered nurse badge was red, white and blue with gold plating and it featured a red cross. In 1976, as part of the Hospital’s Centenary celebrations, a Coat of Arms was released with its motto, “Crescent atque crescamus”. This translates to “May they grow and may we” and it was during this year that the nurse badge was changed to feature the Coat of Arms.
The “old” Kermode Street Nurses’ Home was opened in 1925 containing 60 rooms. Split over three floors, the building included space for recreation, a writing room and even a piano on the ground floor.
1934 'Nurses To Meet Again'. Image credit: The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA)
The first ever reunion of nurse trainees took place with more than 150 guests attending. The evening, known as the “Back to the Hospital Movement” was hosted by Matron Knight and Sister Waterhouse (Assistant Matron) in the outpatient’s department of the Hospital, with decoration managed by the current trainees. Today, many of our past trainees get together frequently and continue to hold their own reunions and celebrations.
The First PTS taking part in a baby bath demonstration in 1947. WCHN History and Heritage Collection.
The Hospital’s Preliminary Training School (PTS) was introduced in 1947 – the very first of any health facility in South Australia. The PTS, while a long-way from today’s standards, was a vast improvement on the approach of previous years where new trainees began working directly on the wards with no instruction and learning through trial and error. The eight week training school included bedmaking, bandaging, sponge practice, sorting laundry and ethics and etiquette.
From 1949 until 1953 Adelaide suffered a polio epidemic (poliomyelitis). Many nurses also contracted the illness while caring for patients. The most critically ill patients suffered muscle paralysis which, if it included the chest muscles, meant that patients could not breathe unaided. In these cases, an ‘iron lung’ – state-of-the-art in life support technology at the time – was used to support respiration. Polio vaccines were introduced in Australia in 1956, helping to eradicate the disease.
Florence Knight Nurses’ Home was opened on North Adelaide’s Brougham Place, named after a former matron of ACH from the years 1930 to 1945. The residence was a multi-storey building large enough to accommodate 200 nurses. The building was later earmarked for demolition to make way for the new Queen Victoria Building.
Nursing recruitment brochure. Image credit: 1980s WCHN History and Heritage Collection.
For decades, the Hospital had struggled to keep its nursing workforce in pace with increasing demand. In this era, women who married had to leave the workforce so many trainees and newly completed nurses left the workforce soon after graduating. During the 1960s many changes were afoot with both the training and education of nurses, rising patient occupancy rates and demand for more specialising nursing skills. In 1961, the first one-year course for enrolled nurses to assist registered nurses in hospital nursing began.
1963 ‘Male nurses big help’. Image credit: The Advertiser (Adelaide SA).
Male nurses began to debut at the Hospital in the 1960’s, though the profession remained highly gendered with the vast majority of nurses being female. One of the first male nurses to complete a full course of general nursing training at the ACH was Kevin Donahue who graduated in 1969.
During this era, specialised nursing also began to emerge where nurses could be trained for disciplines such as intensive care units. These specialisms helped to advance patient care and deliver better health outcomes to patients.
South Australian nurses contributed to national discussions leading to the federal government’s decision to transfer all basic general nursing education from hospitals to the higher education sector. Undergraduate diploma courses in nursing began at Sturt College (1975) and the South Australian College of Advanced Education (1983). Later these became bachelor’s degree courses.
The Hospital celebrated its Centenary year with a series of events and activities. To mark the 100 year milestone, a paediatrician named Dr Dilys Craven presented the “Pap Cup” to the Hospital. This was a silver feeding vessel used in the early 19th century to feed infants. At the time, it was used to mix wet bread with beer, milk and honey. The Pap Cup went on to become an annual award for the next 10 years, presented to the most outstanding student nurse in practical nursing.
Nurse group 384 pictured on the Hospital steps in 1987. Supplied by Beth Freeman-Gray.
A 38-hour working week for nurses was introduced in 1985. This, combined with the phasing out of Hospital-based training and a national shortage of registered nurses, made finding paediatric nurses with suitable experience even more challenging.
Trainee nurses from group 851, graduating in 1988. image credit: 1988 WCHN History and Heritage.
The last group of student nurses to train at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital as registered nurses graduated. A morning tea was held at the Hospital for members of the final PTS group, and past nurses from the very first PTS also attended to mark the end of this special era.
Billboard photographed in 1989, advertising the rebuilding appeal for the Queen Victoria Hospital amalgamation
The amalgamation of the Queen Victoria Hospital and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital occurred and created the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children. This would later be renamed the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, as it is known today, and our organisation was once again reborn as the Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation. The WCH was the very first Australian hospital specialising in health services for women, children and young people.
Nursing education moved from hospitals to the classroom. Hospital training for nurses was phased out by 1993 and undertaken completely within the higher education sector.
The current Women's and Children's Hospital pictured from above, in North Adelaide.
The Women’s and Children’s Hospital was fully reborn on 8 May 1995 when the Women’s and Babies Division opened and over 150 patients were transported by ambulance and taxi to the new facility.
Today the Women’s and Children’s Hospital employs Registered Nurses, Midwives, Enrolled Nurses, Assistants in Nursing and Assistants in Midwifery. These nurses continue to be both the backbone of healthcare and on the front lines of advancing patient care and outcomes.
Kate Hill, along with Alice Tibbitts, were among the first nurses to complete training at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. Hill stayed at the Children’s where she was rapidly promoted to head nurse by 1887 and later, after a brief time away, became superintendent of nurses (or matron). She resigned in 1902 to become a partner of Wakefield Street hospital that had become the first private nurse training school in SA.
Hill remained a life member of the Children’s Hospital’s board of management and in 1939, the Kate Hill honour board was established by the Adelaide Children’s Hospital Nurses’ Association with the name of each year’s outstanding student inscribed upon it. Today, the Hospital’s Kate Hill Ward holds this important historical name. The Ward provides care to babies, children and teenagers admitted for emergency surgical care.
Since her trainee days, Jeanne has maintained a close connection with the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She commenced nurse training with PTS 11 in 1948, graduating in 1951 and went on to serve on the Trained Nurses Association of the Hospital for 30 years.
Jeanne was also President of the Association in 1976 which earned her one of her proudest memories; arranging a dinner for 500 nurses as part of the Hospital’s Centenary of Nurse Training.
Jeanne’s love of the Hospital led to her writing and publishing a book, ‘In Our Day’, in 1995 which includes both historical and personal reflections of her time at “The Kids”.
