VPRS 17590 Nursing Student Application Index

Administrative History on Nursing Education:In circa 1859, Melbourne-Lying-In Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children (now The Royal Women's Hospital) commenced training in midwifery nursing. The Hospital established a formal three months certificate course in 1862 and a Gynaecology course in 1888. Up until 1993, these two training schemes were the platform of the nursing education programme; throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, midwifery and gynaecology training was extended, shortened, and re-shaped, to cope with the hospital's exigencies and changing government regulations.The Women's became a centre for general nursing training during the 1940s and 1950s. This course had an emphasis in gynaecological nursing, but also included an external placement with another hospital, for the students to extend their training and experience in other areas of nursing.A range of other training courses were conducted or facilitated by the hospital, responding to advancements in medical technology. These included: Neonatal Paediatrics; Cytotoxic Drug Therapy; Family Planning etc.The Kathleen Syme Education Centre at The Royal Women's Hospital school closed in 1993 when the nursing courses in Midwifery, Gynaecology and Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing became university postgraduate qualifications rather than hospital based courses.Series Description:This series comprises the Nursing Student Applications Index, 1/1/1934 to 22/5/1949. This alphabetical index records each student's surname and corresponding register page number under each letter category. The volume refers to a subsequent index which no longer exists.The training courses represented in these volumes include: Midwifery; Gynaecology (undergraduate and post graduate) and General Nursing. The Royal Women's Hospital offered its own General Nursing course, from 1940 until circa 1953. This index includes applications of both the hospital's own General Nursing students and those from other hospitals (e.g. Repatriation General), who undertook their gynaecology component at this specialist hospital.This index controls both the VPRS 17593p0001 Nursing Student Application Registers (Units 2 and 3) and VPRS 17586p0001 General Nursing Student Applications. The latter series is the only remaining example of student applications for any of The Royal Women's Hospital nursing courses.