Even into its second decade, Nursing Studies was still working hard to gain credibility in the profession and to be accepted as a bona fide academic discipline, which, in an ancient university with high standards, was indeed a challenge. But this decade was to be Nursing Studies coming of age.
Coming of age
For any new academic discipline, one marker of its ‘coming of age’ is when it gets its first Chair. ‘Chairs’ – so called because in medieval times the professors lectured from a seated position – are central to the structure and function of a university. A Chair names and delineates an academic discipline, and when established in perpetuity, it supports the continuity of that discipline in its host university.
It was in 1971 – midway through this second decade – that The University of Edinburgh decided to found a Chair of Nursing Studies. This was the first Chair for nursing outside of North America: a significant milestone in the history of nursing in the UK and in Europe as a whole.
A Chair is a position: its occupant is a Professor. The first occupant of the Chair of Nursing Studies was Margaret Scott Wright. She took up that appointment on 1st January 1972.
Note these two dates – 1971 and 1972. They are important dates historically yet have been muddled or conflated in publications and on websites, even by Nursing Studies people, including myself. So, last year, while working with Pam Smith in the University Archives, I decided once and for all to verify these dates by tracking down a primary source of evidence.
The foundation of the Chair of Nursing Studies
We had not come across any formal document in the Nursing Studies boxes, and I had no idea where else to look. So, I sought the help of our supervisor, Grant Buttars, Deputy University Archivist. And he tracked down the original record of the foundation of the Chair of Nursing Studies in the minutes of The Court. The Court is the University’s governing body: its records are held in bound volumes going back through the centuries, not yet digitised and not openly accessible. It was exciting when Grant gave us a copy of page 87 of the record of the Court meeting held on 13th December 1971. And there lies definitive proof of the approval – on that date -of the foundation of the Chair of Nursing Studies, and for Margaret Scott Wright to be appointed to the Chair with effect from its operative date – 1st January 1972.
So, now we know for certain. The Chair was founded in 1971. Margaret Scott Wright was appointed to the Chair in 1972. Only weeks apart, but different years.
The first Professor of Nursing Studies: Margaret Scott Wright
By the time of her promotion to the Chair, MSW (as we all called her) was already a respected and authoritative member of the University, having been appointed in 1968 as Head of Nursing Studies following the death of Elsie Stephenson. A former Matron of the Middlesex Hospital in London and with two degrees (MA, PhD) from The University of Edinburgh, there was no one better respected and qualified than Margaret Scott Wright to become the first holder of our Chair of Nursing Studies.
In 2022, to mark 50 years since that first nursing professorship, I joined with Anne Marie Rafferty (a distinguished alumna, now a member of the House of Lords) and Aisha Holloway (present holder of the Chair, currently seconded to the post of Chief Nursing Officer for Scotland) to write an Editorial for the Journal of Advanced Nursing). In our outline of Margaret Scott Wright’s career, we highlighted her membership of the Briggs Committee. That had been set up by the government to review all aspects (and problems) of nursing in the UK. The ‘Briggs Report’ was published on 1st October 1972 [Cmnd. 5115, HMSO]. Its recommendations were many and far-reaching, including major reforms in regulation and education, and some were radical and futuristic, such as the demand that “nursing should become a research-based profession”. To achieve that, further expansion of the links with universities was recommended, and also the establishment of some nursing research units.
The first Nursing Research Unit
A full year before the Briggs Report was published, Professor Scott Wright had already secured funding from the Scottish government for the establishment of a Nursing Research Unit to be based in Nursing Studies. With research activity expanding, and with Master’s and Doctoral research degrees underway, the Department of Nursing Studies was deemed to be a suitable location for this first NRU in the UK. It opened on 1st October 1971 with Lisbeth Hockey as its first Director.
Another first for Nursing Studies and a marker of the paradigm shift that was beginning to take hold towards the goal that nursing should become a research-based profession.
With Professor Margaret Scott Wright as Head of the Department and Dr Lisbeth Hockey as Director of the Nursing Research Unit, Nursing Studies was on an upward trajectory as it moved through its second decade. It now had an expanding portfolio of teaching and research as well as playing an influential role in developments in the wider nursing profession, both nationally and internationally.
This was the ‘coming of age’ decade for Nursing Studies.
Alison J Tierney CBE FRCN, Student in Nursing Studies at The University of Edinburgh (UG 1966-1971, PhD 1976), then Lecturer, SL, Director of Nursing Research Unit, Reader, Professor of Nursing Research (1997), Head of the Department of Nursing Studies (1998-2002).
Email: alisonjtierney@gmail.com
(Image taken from University Court minutes EUA IN1/GOV/CRT/MIN/1)
