VPRS 17582 Nursing Student Lecture Notes and Handouts

This series comprises the Nursing Student Lecture Notes and Handouts for the Midwifery, Gynaecology and Neonatal Paediatrics courses from 1950 to 1993. In circa 1859, The Royal Women's Hospital commenced training in midwifery nursing. The Hospital established a formal three months certificate course in 1862 and a separate Gynaecology course in 1888. Up until 1993, these two training schemes were the platform of the nursing education programme. The Women's became a centre for general nursing training and later refresher training from the 1940s to the 1980s. 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 medicine. 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 postgraduate courses in Midwifery, Gynaecology and Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing became university postgraduate qualifications rather than a hospital based courses. The published lecture notes were prepared by the Nurse Tutors and members of the Senior Medical Staff, including Dr. John Natrass, whose name and annotations are on a couple of the volumes. Several of the volumes include copies of the roneoed handouts that were supplementary information sheets provided by the lecturers. These lecture notes also provide evidentiary information on the student's perspective of nursing education; many of the volumes include annotations, diagrams and incidental comments penned into the margins and notes written on separate pages.