Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland

History

District nursing in Scotland took shape after William Rathbone’s pioneering work in Liverpool in 1859. In 1875, Mrs Mary Orrell Higginbotham, the wife of a Glasgow merchant, established the Glasgow Sick Poor and Private Nursing Association. She had trained at the Glasgow Western Infirmary and Miss McAlpin’s Nursing Home. During its first year, the association employed just one district nurse, who attended 100 cases in patients’ homes.

Over the seven years leading up to Higginbotham’s death, the organisation had cared for 15,000 cases. In 1887, to mark her golden jubilee, Queen Victoria donated £70,000 to create the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses, which funded home-care nurse training in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. In 1889, the Glasgow Sick Poor and Private Nursing Association became the Glasgow training centre for Queen’s Nurses. By 1891, twelve local associations had affiliated with the Queen’s Institute.

By 1900, Scotland had 199 Queen’s Nurses working across 111 associations. Miss Guthrie Wright served as the first secretary of the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland.

Queen's nurse award

In 2017, the Queen's Nurse title was brought back for community-based registered nurses, midwives, and health visitors who show clinical leadership. The organisation’s founding charter, still in effect, describes its aim: to train, support, and maintain women as nurses for the sick poor, possibly establish nurses’ homes, and generally improve nursing care for the sick poor.