About the event
This webinar explores the development of nursing care in early 20th century Casualty Departments, with a focus on Sydney Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Drawing on documented clinical cases from around 1915 through to the 1930s, the session examines the care provided by Student Nurses and Trained Nurses during a formative period in Australian emergency nursing history.
Clinical nursing practice from this era is not widely documented, with much of the historical narrative instead focused on broader professional developments. Where clinical practice is described, it is often reliant on oral history, which typically spans only the past 50 to 60 years. As a result, detailed accounts of Casualty Nursing, the precursor to modern Emergency Nursing, remain rare.
This presentation brings together evidence from Australian medical journals, contemporary nursing textbooks, nursing examination materials from the Australasian Trained Nurses’ Association (ATNA) and Nurses Registration Board (NRB), and rare surviving medical records to reconstruct a clearer picture of everyday nursing practice between 1900 and 1940.
The session highlights changes in nursing and medical care across this period and encourages reflection on how historical understanding of clinical practice is constructed and interpreted.
Key Learning Objectives
- Explore the type of nursing care provided in casualty departments 90 to 110 years ago
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Examine the challenges of researching and writing about the history of clinical nursing, including strategies used to validate data sources
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Appraise commonly held assumptions about the progression and advancement of nursing practice over time
About the speaker
Dr Elizabeth Harford MACN
Dr Elizabeth Harford is a retired registered nurse and healthcare leader with over 40 years’ clinical and management experience across NSW Health. A PhD-qualified historian, her research spans the evolution of casualty departments and emergency nursing in Sydney, with extensive work on clinical practice, ambulance services, and medical specialisation in Australia.