Ethel Bedford-Fenwick

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Ethel Bedford-Fenwick, 1925

Ethel Bedford-Fenwick (also used name Ethel Gordon Fenwick ) (born January 26, 1857 in Elgin (Moray) , Scotland , † March 13, 1947 in London ) was a British nurse and founder of the International Council of Nurses .

Origin and life

Ethel Bedford-Fenwik (née Mason) was born on January 26, 1857 in Elgin, Scotland. After the early loss of her father, her mother married the conservative member of parliament George Storer in South Nottingham, who enabled her to have a carefree youth. In 1878 she began training in children's nursing , which was still a new branch of nursing at the time . She then trained as a nurse at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. At the age of just 24 she was elected Superior of the prestigious St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. There Bedford-Fenwick reorganized the nursing service before she met the doctor Bedford-Fenwick in 1887 and married him that same year. As was customary at the time, she withdrew from active care after the marriage, but remained active in professional politics.

Bedford-Fenwick wanted British nurses to have a legal status similar to that which doctors had achieved in 1858. To this end, she founded the Royal British Nurses Association in 1888 , which fought as a political force for state recognition of nurses. From 1893 she was the editor of The Nursing Record magazine and eventually founded the International Council of Nurses (ICN), initially as the Florence Nightingale International Foundation . She led the organization as president for five years.

Bedford-Fenwick achieved a significant extension of the training time for sisters and fought for the state registration of the sorority. This was achieved through the Nurses Registration Act 1919 , when it opened in 1923, Bedford-Fenwick became the UK's first registered nurse. She became honorary president of the ICN, honorary member of the professional organization of nurses in Germany , lady of honor of the Order of St. John and holder of the order of the Greek Red Cross.

After a thigh fracture in 1946, she did not recover and died on March 13, 1947 in London.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bedford-Fenwick, Ethel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fenwick, Ethel Gordon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nurse and founder of the ICN
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Elgin (Moray) , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1947
Place of death London