Australia’s oldest hospital has been presented with the prestigious Nightingale Badge, a worldwide symbol of nursing excellence, awarded to individuals and institutions who have made an exceptional contribution to the nursing profession.
NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce AM said the Nightingale Fellowship of London Badge was presented to Sydney/Sydney Eye Hospital (SSEH) in celebration of all Nightingale-trained nurses in Australia.
“Our nurses are some of the best in the world, and it is great to see Sydney Eye Hospital and the Lucy Osburn Nightingale Museum receive international recognition as the founders of Nightingale nursing in Australia,” Ms Pearce said.
“Steeped in history, the Hospital is Australia’s oldest and has been providing high quality healthcare for more than 200 years.”
The Museum, located in the historic Nightingale Wing on Macquarie Street, commemorates two very important women in the history of nursing; social reformer and founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, and Lucy Osburn, an English nurse who in 1897, was sent by Nightingale at the request of the colonial government to Sydney, to establish the first Nightingale Training school in Australia.
SSEH Director of Nursing and Support Services Natalie Maier said it was a proud day for the Hospital.
“We feel extremely privileged to have been recognised by our international colleagues, in acknowledgement of the significant history of nursing first championed here by Lucy Osburn over 100 years ago,” Ms Maier said.
“I thank the museum for preserving the legacy of Lucy Osburn, who very early on, set the standard for nursing in Australia. This high standard lives on today, as our nurses continue to provide world-class patient care.”
President of the Nightingale Fellowship of London Christine Taylor said she was delighted to recognise Lucy Osburn’s pioneering work.
“We are extremely proud and delighted to present this framed badge in recognition of Ms Osburn’s pioneering work in establishing a Nightingale Training School at Sydney Hospital; and in recognition of all those nurses who have trained there and (UK) Nightingales who have come to Australia to work,” Ms Taylor said.
The Lucy Osburn Nightingale Museum is home to a unique collection of medical equipment, records, implements and pathology that portrays the history of nursing and medicine in Australia since the arrival of the first fleet in 1788.
Visitors to the museum can walk back in time into original refurbished rooms, view photos, artefacts, surgical instruments, costumes and the oldest morbid anatomy specimens in Australia.
