NEWS
Staff make a song and dance over having flu jabs A trust has reworked a Christmas classic for a music video urging front line staff to have the flu jab. More than 10,000 YouTube viewers have tuned into the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust campaign video I Don’t Want a Christmas with Flu, which is a cover of Mariah Carey’s festive hit All I Want for Christmas is You. The video features nurses and other staff dancing around wards in Santa hats. Nurse Margo Linton, occupational health and wellbeing manager at the trust, said: ‘We wanted to do something that was fun and appealing, but also carried an important message about flu prevention.’ To watch the video go to tiny.cc/Barnet_flu_vid
Experience and resilience to the fore in drama about profession By Sally Gillen Nurses who travelled the world working in the former British colonies gathered in London last week for a reading of a play inspired by their collective experiences. Passages from Empire, which is set to be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 next year, follows the lives of two nurses who train in Britain together after the first world war and then embark on different paths. One sets sail for Mauritius, the other for Newfoundland. Playwright Vanessa Rosenthal was commissioned by King’s College London to write the play. For inspiration she drew on the letters and diaries of nurses recruited by the Queen Elizabeth’s Overseas Nursing Service (QEONS), formerly known as the Colonial Nursing Association. King’s College London chair of nursing policy Anne Marie Rafferty led on the project alongside Jessica Howell, a Wellcome Trust research fellow.
More than 8,000 nurses were recruited to work in the colonies between the 1890s and 1960s. ‘These nurses often had very little preparation in the early days,’ said Professor Rafferty. ‘The minority had some tropical nursing training, but it was very hit and miss.’ Dr Howell added: ‘The nurses had different motivations for wanting to leave Britain. Some wanted travel and adventure, others perhaps had family who had served in India. Others were attracted to the work because it offered a chance to take on more responsibility.’
Life stories
After the first world war, some nurses took up posts abroad in the hope of finding husbands, she added. At the reading, questions from the audience were taken by three nurses, including Dorothy Pirkis, who was posted to the Solomon Islands from 1956 to 1958 and then the Ugandan capital of Kampala from 1958 to 1965.
Ms Pirkis told Nursing Standard: ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed reading my diaries and sharing them with my husband and the researchers; so much so that it has spurred me on to write my life story for our children. QEONS sisters had such interesting and challenging lives – so often alone and being called on to perform tasks for which we were not trained.’ Although staffing levels varied from country to country, it was not uncommon in Africa for one British nurse to work with four African nurses, taking responsibility for the nursing care in an entire government-run hospital, said Professor Rafferty. Work was varied and some were recruited privately to work close to gold mines, for example, often caring for men with mining injuries, gunshot wounds or injuries inflicted by buffalos. Professor Rafferty said recruiters ‘wanted nurses with a midwifery qualification and experience of public health. They wanted mature women, who were resilient.’
14 december 18from :: volRCNi.com 28 no 16-18 :: 2013 STANDARD Downloaded by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 22, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Staff make a song and dance over having flu jabs A trust has reworked a Christmas classic for a music video urging front line staff to have the flu jab. More than 10,000 YouTube viewers have tuned into the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust campaign video I Don’t Want a Christmas with Flu, which is a cover of Mariah Carey’s festive hit All I Want for Christmas is You. The video features nurses and other staff dancing around wards in Santa hats. Nurse Margo Linton, occupational health and wellbeing manager at the trust, said: ‘We wanted to do something that was fun and appealing, but also carried an important message about flu prevention.’ To watch the video go to tiny.cc/Barnet_flu_vid
Experience and resilience to the fore in drama about profession By Sally Gillen Nurses who travelled the world working in the former British colonies gathered in London last week for a reading of a play inspired by their collective experiences. Passages from Empire, which is set to be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 next year, follows the lives of two nurses who train in Britain together after the first world war and then embark on different paths. One sets sail for Mauritius, the other for Newfoundland. Playwright Vanessa Rosenthal was commissioned by King’s College London to write the play. For inspiration she drew on the letters and diaries of nurses recruited by the Queen Elizabeth’s Overseas Nursing Service (QEONS), formerly known as the Colonial Nursing Association. King’s College London chair of nursing policy Anne Marie Rafferty led on the project alongside Jessica Howell, a Wellcome Trust research fellow.
More than 8,000 nurses were recruited to work in the colonies between the 1890s and 1960s. ‘These nurses often had very little preparation in the early days,’ said Professor Rafferty. ‘The minority had some tropical nursing training, but it was very hit and miss.’ Dr Howell added: ‘The nurses had different motivations for wanting to leave Britain. Some wanted travel and adventure, others perhaps had family who had served in India. Others were attracted to the work because it offered a chance to take on more responsibility.’
Life stories
After the first world war, some nurses took up posts abroad in the hope of finding husbands, she added. At the reading, questions from the audience were taken by three nurses, including Dorothy Pirkis, who was posted to the Solomon Islands from 1956 to 1958 and then the Ugandan capital of Kampala from 1958 to 1965.
Ms Pirkis told Nursing Standard: ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed reading my diaries and sharing them with my husband and the researchers; so much so that it has spurred me on to write my life story for our children. QEONS sisters had such interesting and challenging lives – so often alone and being called on to perform tasks for which we were not trained.’ Although staffing levels varied from country to country, it was not uncommon in Africa for one British nurse to work with four African nurses, taking responsibility for the nursing care in an entire government-run hospital, said Professor Rafferty. Work was varied and some were recruited privately to work close to gold mines, for example, often caring for men with mining injuries, gunshot wounds or injuries inflicted by buffalos. Professor Rafferty said recruiters ‘wanted nurses with a midwifery qualification and experience of public health. They wanted mature women, who were resilient.’
14 december 18from :: volRCNi.com 28 no 16-18 :: 2013 STANDARD Downloaded by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 22, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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