ABSTRACT
Some hospital wards ran well under the ward system, but much remained to be done to bring the assistant and night nurses up to an acceptable clinical standard. The same was true of many sisters. In addition, as the reformation of manners took hold, there was the whole issue of Victorian standards of propriety and respectability, which only some sisters and fewer nurses met. In this chapter we first explore overseas influences on nurse training in England. We explain why Roman Catholic1 models of nursing had little impact on early attempts to provide structured training for nurses. In contrast, the Deaconess Institute at Kaiserswerth, Germany, a highly successful institution which trained large numbers of nurses who met the requirements of Victorian respectability, was profoundly influential. The Kaiserswerth Institute directly influenced two early efforts to provide training for English nurses: Elizabeth Fry’s nursing institution founded in 1840, and Florence Nightingale’s reorganization of the Hospital for Gentlewomen at Harley Street in 1853-54.
