Minutes of the Royal College of Nursing Council meetings

Scope and Content

Meetings were held once a month. They are arranged in the following order: minutes of the previous meeting, minutes of current meeting, agenda of current meeting, papers of current meeting.

Items addressed at every meeting are: the location of the meeting, attendees and apologies, matters arising, correspondence, Congress, membership matters, reports from committees, reports from national boards, use of the seal, membership numbers.

During 1954 the topics discussed by Council include:

RCN comment on the Nuffield Report

Death of Helen Bird, founder member

World Health Day 'The Nurse - Pioneer of Health'

Nurses and midwives Whitley council

Cowdray Club

Death of Lady Denman, Vice-President of the RCN

The training of district nurses

Nurses trained abroad

Proposed department of nursing at the University of Edinburgh

Death of Annie Burgess, matron of Seaside Cottage, Bonchurch

Indexed.

This record relates to two separate sets of minutes: the original set is signed. This volume is kept in Store B.

The other set is a copy of the original, split into two volumes. One volume runs from 21 Jan to 20 May 1954, and the other from 22 Jul to 16 Dec 1954. These volumes are kept in Store A.

Access Information

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact the RCN Archives in advance of their first visit.

Other Finding Aids

Most recent online Royal College of Nursing Archives Catalogue is available at http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/library_and_heritage_services.

Conditions Governing Use

Royal College of Nursing

Custodial History

The main bulk of volumes came from London library historical collection to Edinburgh with the Archives' collections in 1992. Library maintained a copy set. From 1992 up until 2009 the papers were transferred directly by Council and Committee Admin (previously 'General Secretariat', or 'General Secretary's Office') One copy went to RCN Library for binding and the original to Archives, unbound. In January 2017 the two sets were brought together to create one full run of papers and an additional run, with copies of most years. The more complete set is held in Store A and the less complete set in Store B.