School celebrates 150th anniversary
On Friday 9 July the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s College London celebrated its 150th anniversary with a ball at the prestigious Guildhall venue in London. The event was an opportunity to celebrate the School’s history and founder, and also to look to the future – the Next Generation Nightingales.
The ball was attended by a variety of guests including staff and students from the School and wider King’s community, alumni and friends of the School including Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive and General Secretary, Dame Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer for England, and Eileen Sills, Chief Nurse, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The evening featured speeches from Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Head of the School, and James Squires, outgoing Chair of the School’s Nursing Students Council and recent BSc Adult Nursing graduate.
The world’s first professional nurse training school, the School was established by Florence Nightingale at St Thomas’ Hospital, and opened its doors to its first probationers, or students, on 9 July 1860. Since then the School has continued to pioneer as a provider of nursing and midwifery education and research, and hosts the National Nursing Research Unit, a multidisciplinary national centre for nursing research in England. It produces world class health services research that is of relevance to policymakers and healthcare leaders and which contributes to improving the quality and effectiveness of nursing in its social, political, local, national and global contexts. In May the School was recently ranked by the Complete University Guide 2011 as the best school of nursing in London, and a top ten school for nursing in the UK.
Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Head of School, said: ‘We celebrated 150 years of the School, on the very day that the original Nightingale School opened its doors, in the splendid setting of the Guildhall. It was a fantastic occasion and a night to remember. Here’s to the next 150 years!’
James Squires, outgoing Chair of the School’s Nursing Student Council, said: ‘It was an amazing evening and one which I, and all of the students, will truly never forget. The School would not have built it's reputation of high quality, caring and compassionate students without the hard work, dedication and perseverance they have all shown towards their chosen healthcare profession.’
The School has been involved in many events throughout its anniversary year, including participating in the annual memorial service to celebrate the life and work of Florence Nightingale at Westminster Abbey on 12 May, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a King’s alumnus, gave a sermon about the importance of the nursing and midwifery profession. John Browne, the School’s composer in residence, also composed a piece of choral music inspired by the writings of Florence Nightingale, which was performed by the Westminster Abbey choir.
More events are taking place in the autumn with two events at the Wellcome Collection, ‘Handle with Care and a ‘King’s Symposium’, on the 17 and 18 September respectively. Both events will draw upon the impact of the work of Florence Nightingale, explored from a wide variety of angles including war studies, history of medicine, celebrity and the media, religion, travel and life writing by academics from the School and King’s.