Re: Lucy Osburn: Biographer seeking information -- Osburn Connection Message Board

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Date Posted: 02:42:12 03/02/03 Sun
Author: Kim Vernon
Subject: Re: Lucy Osburn: Biographer seeking information
In reply to: Lynda Osburn 's message, "Re: Lucy Osburn: Biographer seeking information" on 22:22:53 05/07/01 Mon

I am doing a Biographer on Lucy Osburn and this is all have and would like more please.
Sister Lucy Osburn was born on the 10 of May 1835 at Leeds hospital, England to Ann & William Osburn. She travelled all around Egypt, Europe and the Middle East, where most women in that time stayed in the county of there birth. She travelled with her father William an Egyptologist, on he�s study tours. This gave her the opportunity of learning different languages.

She suffered with chest infection when she was a child this was one of the reason that her father took her with him on he�s trips, as the weather in Briton was bittly cold in winter so wormer climates were needed. Her father did not approve of her nursing as he thought a women�s place was in the home, although he did not mine her helping him with he�s research. But the love of helping people was overwhelming and she went on to study nursing at the Florence Nightingale collage of nursing at Thomas�s Hospital from 1866-67. After she graduated, Florence Nightingale had received a letter from the NSW colonial secretary, Henry Parkers appealing for trained nurse for the Sydney Infirmary, so this was offered to Lucy, and Lucy was appointed Lady Superintendent.

She arrived in Australia 5 March 1868 on the Dunbar Castle where the board of the Hospital meet her and five nurses, Miss Turiff, Assistant, & Nightingale Nurses: Barker, Blundell, Chant and Miller. The trip was very hard for the six nurse and they where glad to see land and were looking forward to getting a good night sleep in the accommodation that had been promised. The board of the hospital welcome them to Sydney and they where taken directly to the hospital. The promised new residence for the nurses had not been finished, the hospital buildings were verminous; there was no plumbing; the quality of patient care was inimical to health. This was not going to upset her and she new that it was going to be hard, if only she new how hard it would be for her. After the nurses had been given some accommodation in the back of the hospital they had something to eat and settled down for the night.

Lucy found that over the next few weeks that her poison did not include control over the domestic staff and stores; this made getting things that were needed to improve conditions very difficult. The English sister proved fractious and insubordinate and only one was to survive the expiry of their contract in December 1870. There were also people who did not like the way she could make powerful friends who had influents, this caused resentment, in the hospital board and with some of the doctors. She came across doctors and board members that undermined her, and interfered with ward management and nurse discipline due to the resentment they would try and make her look bad in the eyes of the rest of the board and doctors, not understanding Professional nursing. This was to go on for years until a royal commission into public charities (1873-74) Chaired by William Windeyer, paid special attention to the chaos at the Infirmary, which had become notorious. Lucy Osburn had been consulted about the appointment of the commission and was the only official to emerge from its enquiries with honour.

Alarmed by conflicting reports during the first three years and disappointed by the dispersal of the Nightingale fund sponsored team � the first ever sent abroad- Florence Nightingale had lost confidence in Miss Lucy Osburn. Dr Alfred Roberts became aware of this during a visit to Miss Nightingale in London in 1873 and used his privileged information to justify a public accusation that Miss Osburn (an old enemy) had departed from Nightingale principles. Both Parkes and Windeyer wrote privately to Miss Nightingale, discrediting Robert and warmly testifying to Miss Osborn�s success under adverse conditions. Although this did not restore Lucy to Miss Nightingale�s favour, Nightingale training was secure in Australia. Miss Lucy Osburn�s nurses were to filter throughout the Australian colonies and even to London, where the matronship of Brompton Hospital fell in 1881 to Florence Abbott who proved a brilliant success.

The post of manger was abolished in 1875 and Miss Osburn�s authority in the Infirmary was never seriously challenged thereafter. The Sydney Hospital Act of 1881 gave better administrative guidelines respire an increase in size for an already overlarge board. But the hospital remained difficult to work Miss Osburn was not physically strong as she still suffered with chest infection. She had missed a third of her St Thomas�s training through illness and had come to Australia Partly for health reasons. A series of minor administrative crises during 1883-84 caused a breakdown which led to her resignation in November 1884. She left in 1885 for London via the United States and later that year was inspecting hospitals in Berlin.

During 1886-90 Lucy Osburn was attached to the Metropolitan and National Nursing Association which supplied district nurses to the sick poor in London. In 1888 she was a foundation council member of the British Nursing Association. To her friend lady Windeyer she wrote: �the difficulty is to arrange things upon a sufficiently broad basis the doctors being determined to take the whole thin into their own hands which if they do they will wreck it; She wrote also of returning to Australia but she never did. She died at Harrogate on the 22 December 1891.

I have found that Miss Lucy Osburn was one of Australia�s great pioneer�s and although she was born in England and Died there she still gave us a template to work by today in nursing, she has left a legacy for all of us, if you put your best foot forward no one and get in your way as long as you do your best.

200 Australian Women a Redress Anthology
editor Heather Radi
written by Ann M Mitchell
Also; The Hospital : A Social and Architectural History
John D Thompson and Grace Goldin
Yale University Press 1975
Florence Nightingale�s Nurses
Lucy Seymer
Pitman Medical Publishing Co Ltd 1960
Web site www.countryjoe.com/nightingale

1867 Miss Lucy Osburn appointed Lady Superintendent; Miss Turiff, Assistant, & Nightingale Nurses: Barker, Blundell, Chant and Miller

Reference: Only
The Nightingale Wing is the home of the oldest nursing school in Australia.
The wing is a picturesque polychrome brick, three storeyed structure (1868-69) built to the design of Thomas Rowe and approved by Florence Nightingale, who was the most respected innovator and reformer of nursing techniques both in our time, and at any other time in history. The Gothic Revival building became the home of the first Nursing School in Australia, and was opened soon after the arrival of Miss Lucy Osburn, who was sent by Miss Nightingale with a team of five nurses from England to reform nursing practice at the hospital.
In 1901, additions were made by adding a floor and a wing to the east; and in 1918 it was again extended due to space limitations. It is listed under the National Trust because it is the oldest building now standing on the present site of Sydney Hospital and is an integral part of the Sydney Hospital group.
Part of the Nightingale Wing is now used to accommodate the Lucy Osburn � Nightingale Foundation Museum.
Updated on 22 September 2002

Reference: Only
In 1868 the arrival of Lucy Osburn, a Nightingale prot�g�, to Sydney marked the beginning of significant nursing reform. In response to the ongoing problems and the appalling low standards of nursing that existed within the Sydney Infirmary, Florence Nightingale�s assistance was sought to improve the inadequate system of nursing. During the period, Florence Nightingale was universally recognised for the contributions to the reformation of nursing in Britain and her views in all matters relating to nursing, health, hospitals and public welfare were widely sought from all corners of the globe (Brodsky, 1968).
Advances in medical knowledge and technology had also begun to effect nursing practice. The discoveries of anaesthetics, disease pathophysiology, and the benefits of aeseptic technique had led the medical authorities to demand improvements in nursing in order to improve patient outcomes and survival rates (Keneley, 1988). As a result, Miss Lucy Osburn was appointed Lady Superintendent of the Sydney Infirmary and set out to reform nursing within the hospital based on Nightingale values. It was hoped that these changes would set a precedent for the improvement of nursing and its public image within other hospitals throughout Australia.
During her five years as Lady Superintendent at the Sydney Infirmary, Osburn�s most significant achievement was not just a significant improvement in standards o f nursing care, but her remarkable positive influence on how the public perceived nurses and their work. Lucy Osburn introduced the wearing of uniforms and adherence to strict hygiene standards for nurses, and also set the initial foundations for formal nurse training, incorporating formal lectures and teaching sessions into the daily hospital routine (Brodsky, 1968).

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Re: Lucy Osburn: Biographer seeking information -- Cotton (Grateful), 00:53:52 02/22/07 Thu