School showcased at Wellcome Collection events

In September the School held two exciting events at the Wellcome Collection. 

The first event, Handle with Care – Next-generation Nightingales, was an all building spectacular on Friday 17 September curated by the School. The event explored the critical roles that science and the senses play in nursing and midwifery, and reflected upon the changing practice over the past 150 years, using film, theatre, music, talks and hands-on activities.

The second event, Navigating Nightingale, was an academic symposium, led by Dr Rosemary Wall and Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, where the life and work of Florence Nightingale was explored from a wide variety of angles including war studies, history of medicine, celebrity and the media, religion, and travel writing.

Speakers and chairs included academics from King's, alongside experts from the Florence Nightingale Museum, the University of Pennsylvania and Florence Nightingale biographer, Mark Bostridge.

Professor Anne-Marie Rafferty, Dean of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery said: ‘I am delighted that the School co-created these innovative events - a cornucopia of care. They celebrated the creative contribution of nurses and midwives to the craft of care, building on the past as well as being focussed on the future. The events brought together artists and designers with nurses, midwives, historians and biographers in a new creative collaboration. We are thrilled to have worked with the Wellcome Collection in this exciting way.''

Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes at the Wellcome Trust, comments: ‘Nurses and midwives are often the unsung heroes of our healthcare system and few stop to consider the diversity and flexibility of their role. Handle With Care invited visitors to celebrate 150 years of nursing as a profession and learn more about what it means to be a modern day nurse or midwife’.