Keeping the home fires burning: the history of home nursing in New Zealand 1900-1925

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of home nursing in New Zealand from 1900-1925. The home nurse was usually a female relative of the patient, and while she had a primary school education, she was often untutored in the laws of health and the correct way to care for the sick or injured. This unobtrusive person has rarely been recognised for the significant contribution she has made to the health of New Zealand's population. This thesis therefore focuses on the person of the home nurse and the techniques she was taught in order to provide nursing care in the private home. The aims of the study were to discover how home nursing was conducted in the first quarter of the twentieth century and increase the body of knowledge regarding this aspect of our nursing history. As patient care in the twenty-first century is increasingly being returned to the private home the subject is relevant for today's nurses. Primary sources informing this historical research were texts written on home nursing for a lay readership. Their content was examined in detail and whilst there was some variation of content as time passed and new information was learned, in the main there was a continuity of essential, basic information for the home nurse to know. To determine the difference in knowledge and scope of practice between the lay home nurse and the qualified nurse State registration examinations were also examined and compared with the home nursing texts. This thesis presents an overview of the conditions treated, and the work of the home nurse in providing practical nursing in the private home. The most significant change through the period was that as the registered nurse's scope of practice became more complex, the knowledge and responsibility of the home nurse also increased. Secondly, that registered nurses were actively committed to teaching and working alongside the home nurse, who remain a vital part of the healthcare team to the present day.