Woman's mission and professional knowledge: Nightingale nursing in colonial Australia and Canada

The introduction of Nightingale-style nursing was widely lauded but frequently accompanied by passionate disputes. This article examines the disputes that arose on the two occasions that the Nightingale Fund sent a team of nurses overseas. The two teams respectively introduced Nightingale nursing in Sydney, Australia, and Montreal, Canada. Both teams were led by a Lady Superintendent, Lucy Osburn in Sydney, and Maria Machin in Montreal. In both cases, the Nightingale Fund Council withdrew its support within three years. The Australian and Canadian cases are well-documented but, despite the insights they offer, neglected in the literature. In this article we focus on how the concept of the woman's mission undermined the equally important concept of nurses' professional training. Nightingale nurses were valued not just because they were lay women with religious-style vocations and training in personal values, but also because they had been taught clinical skills. Their greatest achievements came from the vast improvements they made to patient care. Their greatest opposition came from their leaders' attempts to transfer their power and status as ladies to the sphere of the public hospital. Nightingale nurses gained the moral high ground at the expense of contemporary opposition and a persistent devaluing of nursing skills.