09 February 2012
Nurses in Jersey are being given the opportunity to find out more about the support they can receive from a prestigious nursing institute with worldwide links this week when the director of the Queen’s Nursing Institute visits Jersey.
Rosemary Cook, the leader of the UK based charity is visiting Jersey on 9 February to meet with Health and Social Services Department (HSSD) nursing staff, nurses from Family Nursing and Home Care, Jersey Hospice Care and the Prison to talk about the Institute with a view to HSSD setting up a group of Queen’s Nurses in Jersey.
Dedicated
The Queen's Nursing Institute is the charity dedicated to improving the nursing care of people in their own homes. This is done through Queen's Nurses who are committed to high standards of care, helping them to make improvements in practice and to act as leaders and role models; influencing policies that affect home and community nursing services; and funding projects led by nurses that improve care for their patients.
Jersey’s Chief Nurse, Rose Naylor said "We look forward to welcoming Rosemary to the Island, and hopefully starting a process where some of our nurses in Jersey will eventually be recognised as Queen’s Nurses because of the commitment they show to those in their care.
"We have so many dedicated, hard working nurses in Jersey, and we want to celebrate their work. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to find out more about joining this well respected institute, which offers nurses a professional network, and information on the best practice and all the latest news in nursing.
Rosemary Cook said "We have developed an excellent and inspiring community of Queen’s Nurses over the last five years, and I am very keen to expand this, as it brings huge benefits to patients, to the nurses themselves and to their organisations. Queen’s Nurses are nurses in any role in the community who are dedicated to improving patient care, and who are committed to learning and to leadership. They safeguard the quality of care, and bring real passion and invention to improving services.
"The application process is quite straightforward, and nurses who become Queen’s Nurses have a dedicated, free development programme, lots of opportunities to influence policy and practice, and access to educational bursaries. They also have a great time at the annual All QN meeting, connecting up with like-minded peers.
"I would like to think that in future there will be a significant part of our QN community working in Jersey: nursing is a special role with commitments and principles that cross borders and gain strength from diversity and sharing. It would be wonderful to welcome nurses from the Island to our QN community."
Minister for Health and Social Services, Anne Pryke added "To have the opportunity to find out more about becoming a Queen’s Nurse, and having the support of the QNI is a real asset and opportunity for nurses across Jersey who are skilled and dedicated in their work across the nursing community."
History
The Queens Nursing Institute began in 1887 with a grant of £70,000 from Queen Victoria from the Women’s Jubilee Fund. A Royal Charter in 1889 named it ‘Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Institute for Nurses’ and gave it the objectives of providing the ‘training, support, maintenance and supply’ of nurses for the sick poor, as well as establishing training homes, supervising centres, co-operating with other bodies and establishes Branches as necessary.
District nursing in the UK began in 1859, when William Rathbone, a Liverpool merchant, philanthropist and later an MP, employed Mary Robinson to nurse his wife at home during her final illness. After his wife’s death, he retained Mary Robinson’s services so that people in Liverpool who could not afford to pay for nursing would benefit from care in their own homes. Seeing the good that nursing in the home could do, William Rathbone and Florence Nightingale worked together to try to develop the service. When too few trained nurses could be found, Rathbone set up and funded a nursing school in Liverpool specifically to train nurses for the 18 ‘districts’ of the City – and so organised ‘district nursing’ began. Manchester, Salford and other cities followed, and the Metropolitan and National Nursing Association was set up in 1874.
The founding of the Institute was the next step in co-ordinating and setting national standards for District Nurse training across the country. By 1909, the Jubilee Congress of District Nursing was celebrating 50 years of the profession, with branches of the Institute in Scotland and Ireland, and visitors to the Congress from district nursing associations from as far afield as the United States, Bermuda, Norway and Australia.
The QNI still has links to a number of community nursing organisations in other parts of the world, who share their values. The name of the Institute was changed to the ‘Queen’s Institute of District Nursing’ in 1928 and to the Queen’s Nursing Institute in 1973. Nurses have not trained at the Institute since 1968, but the Institute continues to support community nurses in any specialty with project funding, professional development, information networks, financial and personal assistance, and works to influence national policy affecting nurses in primary care.
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