Socialising nurse probationers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – relevance of historical reflection for modern policy makers

Primary source material related to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and the London Homoeopathic Hospital, and St Marylebone and Kensington Infirmaries, from the late 19th to the early 20th century is examined. Descriptions of nurse probationers by matrons and sisters are analysed. Character traits rather than intellectual ability are stressed as important. More recent literature, from the 1970s till the present time, is examined to chart the shift in terms of prescription for nurse socialisation, with increasing stress on the nurse as ‘knowledgeable doer’.