I can’t remember when I started to volunteer once a week at the archives in Edinburgh. I think it was about 2015 or 2016. I had not long retired as a lecturer in nursing at the University of Dundee. 
I had been a committee member of the HoNF for several years and was then the Chair from 2018-2019.

Initially, I wasn’t sure about what I was to do, but the team at the archives gently guided me.  I continue to learn the skill of summarising minutes for the online archive catalogue, so that researchers can access and read a synopsis of the various College committee minutes online. I have catalogued minutes from many College committees from most of the twentieth century, including early meeting minutes concerning the establishment of the College of Nursing Ltd. in 1916. It is tempting to get lost in the reading of the minutes and I often end up ‘down a rabbit hole’, when I ought to be working!  I also tend to give too detailed a synopsis, and I have had to learn to reduce my notes – the aim is to get the researchers to engage with the minutes face to face and come into the archives to work with the ‘real thing’. 

Currently, I am working on the RCN Scotland Board minutes from 1917. It is exciting to read and handle these lovely red leather-bound volumes with their beautifully handwritten script. As the Nurse Registration Acts came into force in 1919, the Board looked to establish a unified pay award across the whole of Scotland, in line with the rest the UK. And, in similarities with today, the Board was concerned about the shortages of nurses, albeit in a post First World War setting.

You’d think these minutes might be boring, but they’re not!  They are a snapshot into, not only the workings of the College as it was, but have parallels with current events where the College is dealing with the politics of the day. The themes of supporting and caring for the welfare of members remains a thread throughout the decades.

As well as this, I have previously been involved in looking at the records of Queen’s Nursing Institute for Scotland (QNIS), which are held in the RCN archives too. Also, I am an oral history interviewer.  Currently, I’m involved with other members of the HoNF in the RCN Fellows’ Oral History project. These interviews are collected, preserved and made accessible to researchers by the archive team, often online.   

I feel very lucky to have this volunteering role. I have been well supported by the archive team and made to feel very welcome, it’s good to be part of team again!   My brain is kept active, and the work is interesting and stimulating. It is also fascinating to see the key roles that the archive team have, in preserving and maintaining the College’s varied artefacts. I’d encourage anyone to volunteer in the RCN archives.