Jersey celebrates 100 years of training nurses with exhibition

Friday, 10 May 2024 at 11:54

Jersey is marking 100 years since nursing training began in the island with a new exhibition.

The showcase, which is at the Health and Community Services Education Centre, highlights how far nursing training has come in Jersey since it first started in 1924.

On display are various photos of nursing cohorts from the last 100 years as well as nursing antique devices including ceramic bed pans and steam inhalers.

Photos of Jersey nurses during the German occupation, a ceramic bedpan and steam inhaler

Also at the exhibition are various documents depicting the rules that nurses used to have to follow.

This includes exactly when nurses could have breakfast in bed and guidance surrounding how many flowers should be placed in rooms.

The rules and regulations nurses in Jersey had to follow in 1932

Lynne Cook started her nursing training in Jersey in 1968 and was a nurse in the island for many years.

She tells us there's certainly been some changes in nursing practices since her career began:

"It's very different but the most important thing is the patient is the focus, and that's the one thing that has never changed.

"Of course now there's big use of technology, equipment is different, it's all changed but at the time we thought everything we had was state of the art.

"It's like all professions, everything moves on.

"It's incredible, and it hadn't really struck me until coming to this exhibition how important nursing has been in Jersey. I'm just feeling very proud."

Lynne Cook, former Jersey nurse