Nursing in World War One
November 20th and 21st saw Nursing Studies collaborate with NHS Lothian, Queen Margaret University and Edinburgh Napier University to put on two events which explored nursing in WW1.
The idea for the events had come from Professor Pam Smith after visiting the war poets collection based at Craighlockhart Campus, a tribute to Wilfred Owen and Sigfried Sasson who were resident at Craiglockhart when it was a hospital for officers.
Event planning began last summer and we were delighted secure Professor Christine Hallett from Manchester University to deliver the public lecture, the first of our events. We had over 100 people attend the public lecture which began with a drama piece devised by the Queen Margaret University Drama department. Four Queen Margaret University Students performed a piece especially written for our events called “God’s Waiting Room”. The drama, which had been developed from archive materials, was well received at the public lecture, and was a great beginning to our two day event.
The conference on the 21st was well attended from across practice and academic areas. We also had student nurses in attendance at the conference from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University.
The conference day opened with Yvonne McEwen, who is based in the University of Edinburgh in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Yvonne delivered a keynote speech which gave a tour of nurses and their contribution in the war, their postings and roles and highlighting the role of the professional nurse, surrounded by the voluntary aid detachments (VAD’s) Professor Douglas Cairns (also School of History, Classics and Archaeology at University of Edinburgh), led the afternoon keynote exploring the Iliad with reference to the treatment of emotions in this ancient account of war – it turns out not much has changed in modern warfare.
The day included four workshops, in which speakers used different approaches to thinking about emotions, invisibility and nurses’ work in WW1. Professor Christine Hallett used WW1 nurses’ letters and diary entries to allow us as delegates to explore what nurses and VADs had written about nursing in the time of WW1. Dr Alette Willis led a session on creative writing, and delegates had the opportunity to create found poetry from WW1 archive materials. Dagmar Alexander and Naomi Partridge led a session on the unspeakability of trauma and the afternoon finished with another superb performance of “God’s Waiting Room” by the QMU students.
Holly McNiven, one of the 2014-2018 cohort, found the lectures fact-filled and liked how the workshops allowed the delegates to get more involved and offer comments or ask questions.
‘I found that extremely important because it diffused the heavy, factual lectures and allowed a deeper understanding into the subject matter. I found the history side of things the most fascinating part of the conference. Learning about the unheard voices of the nurses of the past really opened my eyes to the reality of what they were going through, and I think it will be relevant to my current course I’m studying- Nursing. It was a real eye-opener to see how Nursing has evolved and developed into what it is today. I think this will be useful for future research. Also the workshops allowed me to talk and reflect ideas with other academics who have much more experience than me. I met a 4th year nursing student, which was great to hear all about what I will expect in the next few years. Talking to Postgraduate students was also greatly influential as they added a whole new level to the subjects at hand, things I wouldn’t think of. Overall it was a great, intellectually stimulating day and I would happily go to another event like it. I feel it has benefited me and my studies in nursing’Holly McNiven (2014-2018)
Dr Jessica MacLaren at the registration desk
Comments from the conference day :
‘appreciated the opportunity to put into context the difficult and not glamorous role of the nursing who were near to the front line’‘appreciate the variety of speakers and the interdisciplinary context in the workshops’‘learned the importance of nursing history – thank you!’”a very powerful experience for me, it will take some processing but had definitely changed me’
‘It was a really interesting and eye-opening day, I learnt so much throughout the day that already I have applied to my academic work. I would love to go again if I could’Holly McNiven (2014-2018)
Thank you to the organising committee for organising both these events :
Alison Wood, Dr Jessica MacLaren, Professor Pam Smith: University of Edinburgh
Dr Juliet MacArthur: NHS Lothian
Dr Kath MacDonald: Queen Margaret University
Dr Rosanne Cetnerskyj: Edinburgh Napier University
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