The District Nurse

For 150 years, up and down the country, from large cities to rural areas and the remotest islands and highlands, district nurses have been visiting the sick in their own homes. Here they have provided healthcare, and given moral support and advice to people of all ages the length and breadth of Britain.

Follow the story of how, in the 1860s, the Liverpool philanthropist William Rathbone VI set up an experiment in home nursing in his home city, aimed at providing care for the poor who had no access to proper medical attention. His scheme resulted in the establishment of district nursing as a profession, and the inauguration of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses.

Take a journey through the growth of the district nursing movement movement, of the expansion of services into school nursing and health visiting in 1891, through nursing and pastoral care during the First and Second World Wars, and learn how, periodically, the district nurse has provided maternity and midwifery services.

This illustrated history of district nursing provides a unique insight into the role played by members of this branch of the nursing profession, and demonstrates how the nurses have been the backbone of the community, providing the public with a wide range of invaluable healthcare services.