Sr. Nora Kilcullen MSHR

A History of Nursing Education in Ireland

In Ireland as in other countries the education and training of nurses has undergone many changes and has moved from what was a working apprenticeship system towards a college-based professional education. The movement for the advancement of womens’ education in the second half of the nineteenth century provided middle class women with the opportunity to gain access to institutions that were closed to them previously. The effects of the Crimean war had a major impact on development of nurse training since this experience demonstrated clearly the importance of good nursing care. While there was some nurse training for members of religious orders before the Crimean war there was no training for women from general population in Ireland.

Perhaps one of the most powerful factors which impacted on the development of nurse training was the reform of nursing which took place in the Dublin Hospitals in 1890s. Lady Superintendents, educated gentlewomen who received nurse training in the reformed Anglican Hospitals in London, Manchester and Liverpool, were introduced at this time to improve the standard of nursing care delivery.

In the early 1880s nurse training systems had been established in many of the voluntary hospitals in Dublin and hospitals managed by the religious congregations. While St Vincent’s hospital trained members of the religious congregations in 1834, the Dublin Nurses’ Training Institution was the first nurse training school to provide formal training in Ireland and opened in 1866. Nurse training was based on the Nightingale model and drew much of its influence from the Anglican sisterhood in England, the Lutheran Deaconess movement in Germany and the Model of Careful Nursing which was used by the sisters of Mercy in Crimea.

In the late part of the nineteenth century, apprenticeship and nurse training was a vocational extension of secondary education and a form of paid employment for women. It was outside the main stream of higher education and provided knowledge and particular skills to nurse sick people. This type of training resulted in loyal hospital workers, generally young middle class women who came from a rural background who were skilled and inexpensive to employ. They worked and learned nursing under the supervision of the Lady Superintendent and the Matron. Nurse Registration was obtained 1919 this again was influenced by the experience of the First World War and by the fact that women were given a vote in 1919 and in particular by the work of suffragettes such as Mrs Ethel Bedford -Fenwick.

While the Apprenticeship system of nurse training continued in Ireland for over one hundred years it was seen to have limitations in producing the kind of nurse who would have the skill and knowledge to respond the demands of nursing in the 21st century. In 1994 a Diploma in nursing was introduced and in 2002, on the recommendations of the Commission on nursing, an undergraduate Degree course was introduced where students are college students and receive their clinical practice in the parent hospital. This degree programme is of four years duration. On completion of the Degree students are registered as nurses with An Bord Altranais.

Personal Involvement in Nurse Education and Training:

I have worked in nurse education in Serabu, Sierra Leone where I taught certificate nurses. I worked at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin where I taught on the certificate and the diploma courses. I am now working at Dublin City University, Dublin where I teach on the undergraduate degree course and on some postgraduate degree courses.