Past Caring

What is activism where care is concerned? From the recent nursing strikes to the central role Black nursing staff played in the formation of sickle cell services, this episode explores a range of different kinds of activism in nursing history.

Frances starts by talking to writer and journalist Madeleine Bunting about her 2020 book 'Labours of Love', to find out why shadowing nurses in their everyday work was eye-opening to her, and what it might tell us about the origins of the recent nursing strikes.

This sets us up to explore the history of radical nursing in more depth. Historian and nurse consultant Chris Hart tells Frances about the history of industrial action in nursing, such as a masked nurses' protest in 1938. Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, who describes herself as a Black health radical, explores activism within nursing practice, in particular her pioneering work in sickle cell nursing.

Producer: Natalie Steed

Links:

Madeleine Bunting is an award-winning British author and former journalist. You can find out more about her work, including 'Labour of Love', here: https://www.madeleinebunting.com/nonfiction

Chris Hart has written four books on nursing and its history, including 'Behind the Mask: Nurses, Their Unions and Nursing Policy' and 'Nurses and Politics': https://www.rcn.org.uk/library

Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu is on Twitter @EAnionwu. Her memoir, 'Dreams from my Mother' is out now in paperback with Orion. Find out more on her website: https://www.elizabethanionwu.co.uk/

What emotions do you associate with nursing? In this episode, Frances finds out about the history of the different feelings linked with nursing care: from faith, fortitude and love to the more recent focus on compassion and the "6 Cs".

She meets historian of nursing and emotions Dr Sarah Chaney, who explains how emotions change over time, and why it's important not to make assumptions about what feelings are essential for care. Artist Rachel Mulligan and nurse Ofrah Muflahi explain the artistic project they both worked on to create new stained glass windows depicting the complexity of modern day nursing and why nursing can't be summed up in three - or even six - emotions. Finally, nurse researcher Dr Jennifer Jackson tells Frances about the under-recognition of emotional labour in nursing, and why striking is a valid response.

Producer: Natalie Steed

Links:

Ofrah Muflahi is RCN Professional Lead for Nursing Support Workers. Find out more here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/Professional-Development/Nursing-Support-Workers and follow her on Twitter @OfrahRn

Read more about the history of emotions at the Emotions Lab, a project by Queen Mary, University of London https://emotionslab.org/ and listen to Sarah Chaney's "Living With Feeling" podcast on robot nurses here: https://soundcloud.com/user-357683788 @emotionshistory

Find out more about Rachel Mulligan's stained glass here https://www.rachelmulligan.co.uk/ and visit the stained glass windows in the RCN Library and Heritage Centre in London or online here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions

Find Sarah Chaney's new book, "Am I Normal?" here: https://profilebooks.com/work/am-i-normal/ and follow her on Twitter @kentishscribble

Read "Is the Art of Nursing Dying?" by Jennifer Jackson and Georgina Morley here: https://go.exlibris.link/1mplXzRy (RCN members can login to get access through the RCN Library and Archive) and follow Jennifer on Twitter @JJackson_RN

Episode 6 delves more deeply into the themes from our exhibition, "A History of Care or Control?" on the history of learning disability nursing.

Content warning: This episode contains a number of terms from learning disability history that are offensive today, especially in the interview with Simon who discusses them as an important part of understanding the history and attitudes towards disabled people.

First, hear from writer and performer Emily Curtis and her sister Sophie Potter, who has Down's Syndrome. Emily recently performed her play "Sophie", at the RCN, which explores the sisters' shared experiences growing up together in Hull, including the stigma and the joy Down's Syndrome brought to their lives.

Next, historian Dr Simon Jarrett tells us about the often surprising history of learning disability, including how it was understood in the eighteenth century and what the phrase "to live in the community" really means. Simon's book, "Those They Called Idiots" was published by Reaktion in 2020.

Finally, retired learning disability nurse Professor Bob Gates tells us about his oral history project collecting the untold stories of nurses who had spent decades working with people with learning disabilities in the large residential hospitals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Past Caring podcast is produced by Natalie Steed and presented by Frances Reed.

Here are some links for more info:

View "A History of Care or Control?" online here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library-exhibitions/Learning-disability-2020

Visit the exhibition at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre until March 2023: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library/About-us/Library-and-Heritage-Centre

Sophie is a Mencap Myth Buster: https://www.mencap.org.uk/mythbusters/sophie

You can watch the full play, "Sophie", on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/kwh8x2FJkD4

Simon's book, "Those They Called Idiots: The Idea of the Disabled Mind from 1700 to the Present Day" is available here: http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789143010

Listen to Simon on the "People First" podcast, a a self-advocacy group run by, and for, people with learning disabilities here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-people-first-podcast-episode-14-simon-jarrett/id1572971263?i=1000555730169

Bob Gates' monograph on intellectual disability nursing is available to RCN members through the Library and Archive or to non-members here: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Intellectual-Disability-Nursing/?k=9781839821554

Episode 5 is here and we're taking a broad look at mental health nursing. We've got a real range of perspectives on this one.

We start with an interview with mental health nurse Simon Arday and Peer Involvement Worker Kojo Bonsu. Kojo shares his experiences of the mental health system, both as a service user and an employee. And Simon speaks about what it means to be a mental health nurse. In this conversation Simon and Kojo are incredibly generous with their experiences and expertise; we cover parity of esteem, racial profiling, problems with the current system and so much more.

I also talk to health care historian Dr Claire Chatterton, who I've had the pleasure of working with for a number of years at the RCN. Claire specialises in the history of mental health nursing and takes us back to the nineteenth century. We explore what a working day was like for a nurse in an asylum, the age-old tension between care and control, and what we can learn from this history.

And my final guest on this episode is the wonderful Sarah Carpenter. Sarah is an artist who makes work exploring her own lived experience. She's also an experienced collaborator, working with others in the health care system to create art. She tells us about her practice, including her 2020 project HOLD for International Day of the Nurse and Midwife at Maudsley Hospital.

The Past Caring podcast is produced by Natalie Steed.

Here are few links for more info:

Claire refers to author Diana Gittins, here's her book on Severalls Hospital: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203029299/madness-place-diana-gittins

Sarah Carpenter's website http://www.sarahcarpentercreative.co.uk/hold.html

and Fourth Wall Folkestone https://www.fourthwallfolkestone.co.uk/

Our fourth epsiode is finally here! We are so excited to share this one. It's all about D/deaf nursing and mental health care.

Frances talks to Herbert Klein, Deaf Advisor, and Jennifer Meek, Deaf Recovery Community Nurse based in Birmingham. Hear from them about why having Deaf professionals in health care is vital for strong communication and proper diganoses for Deaf people. Herbert also recalls his work around building a mental health vocabulary in British Sign Language, and how to understand Deaf peoples' experience of voices and delusions.

Next up Frances chats with Deaf poet and mental health activist Richard D France. He performs some of his poetry for us, and tells us more about his experiences of navigating the mental health system and what it felt like to finally be around nurses that signed!

Our final guest is Deaf historian Peter Brown. Peter has uncovered some incredible stories of the history of Deaf culture, going right back to the eighteenth century. He tells us about Sarah Pounceby, early sign language pioneer, and how British Sign Language developed.

This episode is also available to watch! With subtitles and BSL. Find that on YouTube on the Past Caring playlist: https://youtu.be/vHGqlcrJ-gU

And a big thank you to our brilliant interpreters for supporting this episode: Caroline Richardson, Paul Hollingdrake, Marcel Hirshman, David Wolfenden and Amy Woods.

Producer: Natalie Steed. Film editor: Jeremy Richardson.

Some links for you:

You can find out more about Richard's life in this programme on BSL Zone: https://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/getting-personal/getting-personal-richard-france#

He also performed for us at the RCN back in 2017, You can watch that here: https://youtu.be/lC4Y5eCk118

You can find Richard's books here:

The Book of the Failed Jumper: https://bit.ly/2ZCN9fM

The Rise After The Fall: https://bit.ly/3B07jxO

A Tale of these Contemptible Suicides: https://bit.ly/3iesc0V

Sign-In With Death: https://bit.ly/39L9JEA

In 2018, Herbert was awarded a LIfetime Achievement award by South West London & St George's Mental Health Trust. Here's a video of him reflecting on his career: https://www.swlstg.nhs.uk/about-our-courses/e-learning/83-deaf-services-advisor-herbert-klein-talks-about-his-lifetime-achievement-award

This one is all about public health. But what does that actually involve? Frances explores a few perspectives of public health past and present - she chats to Helen Donovan and Helen Bedford who have dedicated their life to public health, and are our go-to experts for anything vaccination related.

Historian Sally Frampton then gives us some historical context, looking back to 19th Century measures to tackle smallpox, and how the explosion of print journalism at that time affected public health messaging.

And we finish up with a chat with Ying Butt, who tells us how public health caught her attention as a 6 year old in Jamaica, and what she has learned from her patients.

Producer: Natalie Steed

Links:

Helen Donovan is chair of the Self Care Forum. Check out their brilliant work: http://www.selfcareforum.org/ and on twitter @SelfCareForum

Any RCN member listeners can get involved with the public health forum https://www.rcn.org.uk/get-involved/forums/public-health-forum @nurses4ph

History of vaccine scepticism - fab article by Sally Frampton: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/23/vaccine-scepticism-how-to-tackle-it

Our second episode takes the RCN's 2018 exhibition The Wandering Womb as a starting point. Please be aware, we touch on some difficult issues in this one, including eugenics and baby loss.

Frances chats to historian Professor Tracey Loughran about her research into women's psychological, emotional and bodily health in Britain. Tracey tells us about women's magazines and how much they can tell us about women in the late twentieth century.

Nurse Consultant Debby Holloway and Senior Lecturer Dr Wendy Norton bring us up to present day women's health. Frances asks them what misunderstandings they still see in their practice, and how we can all talk more openly about sensitive gynae issues.

Finally, Frances chats to historian and curator Subhadra Das about difficult histories in women's health, including the darker side of pioneer Marie Stopes.

Producer: Natalie Steed

Links:

Read more about Tracey's project 'Body, Self, Family' here: https://bodyselffamily.org/

Hear more from Subhadra on Marie Stopes and eugenics in the Bricks + Mortals podcast: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/play/podcasts/bricks-mortals/bricks-mortals-marie-stopes-and-how-eugenics-was-going-make-world-better

You can view an online version of the RCN's Wandering Womb exhibition: https://www.rcn.org.uk/library-exhibitions/womens-health-wandering-womb

The paper 'Promoting menstrual wellbeing' co-authored by Debby and Wendy is available here: https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/pub-007856

The RCN also publishes women's health pocket guides: https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/rcn-womens-health-cards-uk-pub-009289

#internationalwomensday #IWD #IWD2021

In this first episode of Past Caring, a podcast from the Royal College of Nursing Library and Archive, Frances Reed explores the essential role that nurses have played in tackling pandemics throughout history.

She chats to: infection control expert Rose Gallagher who is supporting the COVID-19 response today; historian Mark Honigsbaum on the role nurses played in the 1918 'spanish flu' pandemic; Jason Warriner, a nurse who remembers all too well the emergence of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s; and artist Mary Beth Heffernan, who created an innovative approach to humanising hazmats suits during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Links:

Pandemic! Nursing 100 years of infection online exhibition (featuring Hampstead Military Hospital Nurses, 1918 image)

https://www.rcn.org.uk/library-exhibitions/pandemic-nursing

Mary Beth Heffernan PPE Portrait project: https://ppeportrait.org/

The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/112/1120525/the-pandemic-century/9780753558287.html

Image: Physicians expressing their thanks to influenza. Coloured etching attributed to Temple West, 1803 (Wellcome Collection) https://wellcomecollection.org/works/geepqy6x

RCN Fair Pay for Nursing campaign https://www.rcn.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/fair-pay-for-nursing