Monthly Nurse

[Browneyes]

Erm...is there a reason why there's not a topic heading in occupations for medical occupations or have I just not looked properly?

I discovered that my Great Grandmother was a monthly nurse. Her job was to 'attend women during the first month after childbirth, aka 'Confinement Nurse'. Sometimes also listed as Subsidiary Medical Services (S.M.S.).

She was widowed sometime between 1891 and 1901 and is marked as 'sick' on the 1901 census but I can't find out if she received a pension/assistance and am assuming that one daughter who worked and lived elsewhere as a servant and one son who worked on the railway in Swindon sent money back to her...she had two daughters living with her who I guess were looking after her but aren't shown to be working. She lived in Cornwall with the two daughters and I'm a bit puzzled she managed to stay in her house if the three of them had no income. Her husband had been a carpenter.

Browneyes

[busyglen]

Erm...is there a reason why there's not a topic heading in occupations for medical occupations or have I just not looked properly?


Browneyes

Could be that nobody has had a specific medical occupation query up to now or have asked a question on the general forum. As queries have been raised new headings have been set up, but there are so many occupations, it would be impossible to name every one. ;)

I've had a look around, but can't find out if the Monthly Nurses had a pension.
So far, it doesn't look like it, but I would have thought that they would have had a reasonable income. Possibly the daughters were doing odd jobs and didn't register the fact on the Census?

Glenys

[ET in the USA]

She was widowed sometime between 1891 and 1901 and is marked as 'sick' on the 1901 census

Just a random thought. When you say she was marked "sick" in the 1901 census, could it be that it clarified the type of nurse she was ??? I have seen "Nurse domestic" which I assumed meant she was really a servant who just happened to care for the 2 & 3 years old in the house. The 'Nurse' was only 15 herself. I have also seen "Nurse" who was 26 & lived in the household with a doctor, L.R.C.S. certified. I assumed that this nurse had actually trained to be a nurse. I also believe I have seen "Nurse maternity" when a very new baby was in the house.

[Browneyes]

Thankyou Glenys & ET. |hug|

Her age is given as 54. Her profession is given as Monthly Nurse and then in different larger handwriting the word 'sick' is written next to it. Further down on the page on another entry for someone else (unrelated) three doors away the same writing is used where someone's profession was stone breaker and it's crossed through and the larger replacement (?) word says 'road lab' so presumably they changed their job to labouring for some reason.

I wonder if either of her daughters helped her in her work. And it makes me wonder about them 'babysitting' or 'childminding' ??

ET - maybe she was caring for the 'sick'. After all, now I think about it, why would they write on the census that she was sick?

[Browneyes]

I didn't even have time to make a cuppa that was so quick!! Thank you.

A newspaper extract (retyped and online) at http://west-penwith.org.uk/wb18873.htm gives a newly appointed nurse at a workhouse the salary of £16 per year in 1887

[ET in the USA]

Back to a nurse for the sick v. a sick nurse; & a Road Lab v. a stone breaker...

I have noticed numerous times when someone seems to have gone through the census occupations at a later time and written in a "generic" description, probably to assign categories for some sort of statistic. Perhaps the enumerator when they got back home, or the super when they turned the sheets in to the "head thingy".

Examples: 'Mantle Saleswomen' has "dress" written in above it.

'Barmaid' has "Inn" written after it.

'Ostler' has "Groom" ...

'Stone Breaker' could be lots of things, but someone made it clear that this stone breaker worked on the roads as a labourer breaking stones. [ever seen old prison/chain gang movies ? Those poor suckers stood out there & banged big stones into little ones. No gravel yard deliveries for them !]

I'd say GG was a nurse who was hired out to sick people on a monthly basis - not a nurse who was employed full time in one house or hospital.
If you think about it, there must have been lots of sick people around in the spring of 1891, but the nice enumerator didn't bother to mention their condition on the census. They had to be blind, Deaf & Dumb or a lunatic/idiot to get special mention :)
Elaine

[Marie C..]

A monthly nurse was a woman who cared for a mother and baby for the month after childbirth. Yes! newly delivered mothers had a month of bed rest. Those who could afford it employed a monthly nurse. The poor usually had a relative to care for them during the "lying -in" time. I doubt a monthly nurse would get a pension. She was self-employed. The word "sick" after the census entry would mean(probably) that she not working at time of census due to being ill. Marie

[Peter Goodey]

As ET pointed out "Sick" is a statistical classification added when the forms were being processed. It was different from the enumeration and not part of the job title.

[benny1982]

I wonder if we could maybe research any midwives or monthly nurses in the censuses or directories in the areas where our ancestors were born so that we can maybe find out who tended their births etc.

I have done the same for the location of registry offices and such.

Ben

[Penny Gallo]

http://www2.hud.ac.uk/hhs/acn/wyhon/uk_national_history.php gives some links for the history of nursing. I haven't looked through them all yet, but it seems that the Department is investigating this area in a most promising way.

Having gone straight back to browse, the first link I tried had expired - but I have found an interesting one from it leading to digitised copies of nursing journals from the later Victorian period: http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/

Possibly best not to read it whilst eating!

[Browneyes]

Bit late but thank you Penny for the interesting link. :)

[SBSFamilyhistory]

I have found a monthly nurse on the 1881 census return, but she aslo has (S M S) as shown, what could these initials stand for. In this case she was also the child's grandmother.

[Peter Goodey]

I have found a monthly nurse on the 1881 census return, but she aslo has (S M S) as shown, what could these initials stand for?

You haven't provided a reference but I am guessing that the "SMS" was added in a different hand. Am I right?

This is just a statistical classification scribbled down when the data was being extracted. It meant something to the staff who were preparing the figures. Perhaps it meant Supplementary Medical Services or something like that. It's not something to worry about.

[Sue Light]

It stands for 'Subsidiary Medical Services.'

Sue

[suzannewozere2]

It stands for 'Subsidiary Medical Services.'

Sue

http://www.peterch.fsnet.co.uk/Pages&Frames/fr-info-employ.htm#nurse

[Peter Goodey]

It was a statistical classification. 031 Subordinate (or Subsidiary) Medical Services. See ref The National Archives; RG 27/5.