The Wales Historical Nurses who are very different person and from different society. They tell us about how they became nurses.
The Historical Nurses
We are going to talk a little bit more about these two nurses from the past. This is because they will always be remembered for who they were and what they did to become famous nurses. If you want to know more we already have a blog about six of the Iconic Nurses Worth Knowing About.
Mary Seacole (1805-1881)
She was a free black Jamaican woman who committed her life and savings to care for British and Jamaican soldiers. Mary was an independent nurse. She brought her own travel supplies, nursing kits, and herbal knowledge to care for sick and injured soldiers.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
She was considered to be the first professional British Nurse and a Statistician. She was known to be the founder of modern nursing when she was part of the Crimean War in Scutari. After seeing Nightingale’s kind-hearted care and commitment to the patients she earned a title ‘The Lady with the Lamp’.
The Welsh Nursing
As you can tell by the title we are talking about the Wales Historical Nurses. By doing that, we are going back a few years where woman nurses began. Below, we are going to talk about the first Welsh Nurse.
Betsi Cadwaladr (1789-1860)
She was known as Elizabeth Davis. Betsi was training as a Nurse at Guy’s London hospital. Then she decided to continue her training to join the military nursing in the Crimean War beside Florence Nightingale.
Betsi had to return back to the UK a year before the war ended because she was ill with cholera and dysentery. During her stay in the UK, she then started to write her autobiography with Jane Williams to write about her memories before she died. In 2009, a university board was founded called Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board of NHS Wales for the north of Wales.
In addition, Betsi and Florence were just two different persons and they both come from two different social backgrounds, Florence was from more of a wealthier family then Betsi was. They did have some disagreements throughout their time in Scutari and she worked there for some months alongside Nightingale. Both gave comments about each other that was not so nice like Florence described Betsi as “an active, respectable, hardworking, kind-hearted old woman with a foul tongue and a cross temper”, which just kept building more tension between them both.
Past and Present of Nurses
We will be reflecting back at the past and present of nurses. Along with that we will telling you about the changed back then and now from Nurses who have experienced the changed.
Val Willmott
She is a Clinical Nurse since 1968, she has told a few things about the changes throughout the years. One of them is how the matrons and sisters would be in the past she says that “we had matrons and sisters who were very, very strict” and nowadays they are not that strict anymore.
Second thing is the uniforms which has definitely changed a lot. Val says, “we had capes and caps given to us” and now she says “the scrubs these days are comfortable but do not look as professional and smart as the full nurse uniforms. You used to feel the part”
Finally, she talks about the staffs saying, “we were short-staffed eve back then and that was quite challenging and upsetting at times”. This clearly shows that the number of staff members they have then and now is still the same in Wales.
We currently have a vacancy for Registered General Nurse (Band 5/6) in Wales, South Wales.
Rebecca Aylward
She was a Director of Nursing for medicine clinical board in 1992. Rebecca says, “I think the NHS has changed tremendously since the 80s” and “it’s a much more complex organisation now. Everything seemed to be simpler and slower-paced 30 years ago”. This is for sure tells us it really has changed because we all know that nowadays there are more technology and more process in doing things, where back then it uses to be so much easier.
Another thing Rebecca says is that “there are pressures on our financial situation, and patients are much more complex than when I started”. This so true because financial state has changed a lot and it really has been complicated over time.
Overall, we have talked about Wales Historical Nurses and the Welsh Nursing Mary Seacole, Florene Nightingale and Betsi Cadwaladr who are very different person and from different society, but they tell us about how they became nurses. Also, we talked about the past and present of NHS and how things have changed over time.
This is the Registered Mental Health Nurse (Band 5) that we currently have in Wales, Swansea.
