Trailblazing Women #: Ethel Gordon Fenwick

- Blurb -

A great nursing reformer, Ethel Gordon Fenwick was born before the age of the motor car and died at the start of the jet age. When she began her career, nursing was a vocation, unregulated with a dangerous variety of standards and inefficiencies. A gifted nurse, Ethel worked alongside great medical men of the day and, aged 24, she became the youngest matron of St Bartholomew' s hospital London, where she instigated many improvements. At that time, anyone could be called a nurse, regardless of ability. Ethel recognised that for the safety of patients, and of nurses, there must be an accepted standard of training, with proof of qualification provided by a professional register. Often contentious, Ethel was a determined woman. She fought for nearly thirty years to achieve a register to ensure nurses were qualified, respected professionals. A suffragist and journalist, she travelled to America where she met like-minded nursing colleagues. As well as helping to create the International Council of Nurses, and the Royal British Nurses Association, she was also instrumental in organising nurses and supplies during the Graeco-Turkish War, and was awarded several medals for this work. Thanks to her long campaign for registration, a year after her death nurses were ready to take their place alongside other professionals when the National Health Service began in 1948. AUTHOR: After obtaining her State Registration for Nursing at University College Hospital, London, circumstances took Jenny Main to Elgin, Moray, where she worked for many years in Dr. Gray' s hospital, Elgin. After injury forced her retirement, she became interested in local history and her District Nursing Officer suggested she write a short pamphlet about the unknown and unsung local celebrity, Ethel Fenwick. Of necessity, a pamphlet evolved into a small book! However, in 2002 a severe flood event in Elgin disrupted the final editing; the book was published locally, but felt unfinished. Since then, Jenny has written several local history books and was encouraged by nursing colleagues and members of the Ethel Gordon Fenwick Commemorative Project to revise and to introduce Ethel, her life, her times and her achievements to a much wider public at a time when the importance of the nursing profession is appreciated more than ever. 21 b/w illustrations