Media Release

Being There - Former Premier Launches Nursing History Book

28 April 2005 
 
Former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner today launched 'Being There', a history of 150 years of nursing in Melbourne, Australia.

In the 1840s, when Melbourne was still a small settlement by the Yarra, the outlook was tough for citizens who became ill or had an accident. If they lacked a home and family to look after them, there was no provision for public medical and nursing care. The government in Sydney was uninterested in supporting a general hospital in the colony. So the citizens took matters into their own hands and raised the funds needed for an institution where the door was always open to the sick and poor.

Nurses are fundamental to hospitals and they have been there from the beginning of 'The Melbourne', our first hospital. Being There traces the story of these women, from whom much has always been expected, but who for decades lacked formal training, and were poorly paid and accommodated. For a long time, their enormous contributions of labour, skill and commitment went largely unrecognised.

Backed by groundbreaking research, Susan Sherson unfolds the history of The Royal Melbourne over the last century and a half through the prism of its nurses, from the matrons to the staff on the wards to the nervous probationers. She reveals their multi-faceted roles and responsibilities from the 1850s to the present, the slow acceptance by the male hierarchy of the need for training, the gradual improvements in wages and conditions, the demands and rewards of nursing in peace and war, home and abroad. Today, along with the community, nurses rightly view themselves as highly trained and valuable professionals, whether on the wards, in administration or staff education, or undertaking research or other activities.

Personalities, characters, influences, the flavour of the various eras, conflict and cooperation, innovations and initiatives, humour, camaraderie, setbacks and achievements are all captured in this readable, involving account of a key aspect of one of Australia's foremost hospitals.

Susan Sherson skilfully interweaves the theme of nursing with the history of the Royal Melbourne's different permanent locations, the medical and political developments over the decades, and the world-renowned work of the hospital.

In many ways, the story of the Royal Melbourne is also the story of the city and its people. Being There shows how, through the unique contributions its nurses have made to the wellbeing of Melbourne and beyond, it is a reflection of women's lives and labour as well.
The book is lavishly illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs.

The author is available for interview.

For further information contact:
Zoe Povoas, Fundraising and Community Relations Office, The Royal Melbourne Hospital
ph: 9342 7371 or zoe.povoas@mh.org.au.