Minutes of the Royal College of Nursing Council meetings

Scope and Content

Meetings were held every few months, in January, March, July and September. Each meeting is split into open and closed sessions (minutes of open session, minutes of closed session, agenda of open session, meeting papers for open sessions, agenda of closed session, meeting papers for closed session).

Items addressed at every meeting are: the location of the meeting, attendees and apologies, matters arising, General Secretary's report, Congress, membership matters, education, employment policy, health and social policy, international, nursing policy, research and development, reports from national boards.

During 1991 the topics discussed by Council in open sessions include:

National vocational qualifications in health

Living wills

Junior doctors hours

Enrolled nurses

Royal garden party

75th anniversary of the Royal College of Nursing

Support for stewards

Terms and conditions for nurse teachers

The topics discussed by Council in closed sessions include:

Industrial action in special hospitals

Gulf crisis

Community nursing

RCN/BBC projects

Health manifesto

Structure of council

Health care assistants

Indexed.

This record relates to two separate sets of minutes: the original set covers two volumes. These volumes are kept in Store B.

The other set is a copy of the original, and also covers two volumes. 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.