In this issue: Beyond the text
In focusing this autumn's newsletter on "beyond the text" I have been conscious of our growing public as well as academic communities. The RCN recognises that it has many historical assets beyond the written word. Architecture, the sound of memory, the photograph, film and television, even the cartoon as an image of critique contributes to our understanding of nursing history.
The newly formed Heritage Committee at the RCN has been tasked to seek out the numerous artefacts known and unknown around the UK. We will need to engage not only our present and past members, but include local archivists, museums and perhaps private collectors in this endeavour.
The parallels between prose and alternative sources can offer us a rich additional reservoir in which to document and interpret our history. Who knows ... we may unearth more than the treasures found in Sutton Hoo and the recent treasure trove within the fields of Staffordshire!
The power of reflection
Of course we cannot catalogue and save every badge, bonnet or buckle - we will have to be discerning. Encouraging practitioners to see the relevance of historical reflection also adds to our history:
- Duncan Mitchell's reflection on his grandmother's career as a nurse adds to our understanding of the informal apprenticeships that once operated - not only in nursing but also in other allied professions.
- Rosemary Thompson's look back at her involvement with the pioneering bone marrow transplant programmes during the 1970s offers a differing nursing interpretation to that of medicine. It confirms the emotional labour both leukaemia patients and those who nursed them underwent during that historic period.
- Readers are also able to see results of our alliance with the RCN Research Society as they charted the "movers and shakers within the nursing research world" in Annie Topping's report.
The regional spotlight in this edition falls on Northern Ireland where, encouraged by the drive, professionalism and imagination of the late Dr Mona Grey, the Northern Ireland Society is keenly aware of its history. They are hosting a number of conferences this autumn and I hope many people have been able to attend.