More nurses in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

This is part of the ongoing work of the forum: to make nurses' achievements visible to the profession, policy makers and the general public.

The work of pioneering and leading nurses from the past is not generally well known. January 11 2024 sees the online publication of another set of nurses' lives in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). This is the culmination of a partnership that has added over forty biographies to the dictionary since 2020. In all over one hundred nurses' lives have can now be seen in the ODNB, ranging from legendary women such as Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole to less well-known figures, both male and female, who have influenced practice, education, research or management within the four nations of the United Kingdom and across all branches of practice, from the beginning of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. These are nurses who have had a positive impact upon health care and society and deserve to be recognised as widely as possible.

This latest set of biographies helps to extend our knowledge of the early days of professional nursing. in mental health (Thomas Darley, 1853-1919), military (Jane Deeble, 1827-1913) and naval nursing (Eliza Mackenzie, 1816-1892), as well as the application of Nightingale type training in America (Louisa Parsons, 1855-1916). Alan Parrish (1937–2013), nurse and social rights activist, is the first learning disability nurse to be included in the dictionary. The careers of Gladys Carter (1887-1959) and Margaret Auld (1932-2010) give insight into the professionalization of nursing and the movement toward educating nurses in universities. Both Muriel Skeet's (1926-2006) work in war torn Africa and Richard Wells' (1941-1993) practice in caring for people with HIV and AIDS illustrates the position of nurses at the forefront of care across a variety of settings, nationally and internationally. The career of Daphne Steele (1927-2004), the first black woman to be appointed a matron in the NHS, published in October as part of 'Black History Month', demonstrates the lasting contribution of the 'Windrush Generation' to health care in the UK.

The forum would like to acknowledge and thank those historians and nurses, including members of the forum, who wrote these latest biographies. The ODNB is an online resource that can be accessed free through most academic and local libraries. See: What's new: January 2024 for a summary of these entries. Although this project is now at an end, the forum will continue to bring the achievements of nurses to light through our Wikipedia project: 'Nurses in Red' and the ongoing programme of collecting oral histories from nurses, both of which are open to membership participation.

Richard Wells (1941 - 1993)

Image source: Nursing Standard