Nurses and children at the dining table in the original Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Scott Street, Garnethill, 1888.
The hospital opened in 1882, when its aims were stated to be: to provide treatment for children of the poor suffering from non-infectious diseases or accidents and to set up a dispensary for advice and medicine; to promote the advancement of medical science with reference to the diseases of children; to provide instruction for students and, "to diffuse among all classes of the community, and chiefly among the poor, a better acquaintance with the management of children during illness, to educate and train women in the special duties of children's nurses, and to instruct lady pupils in the care of sick children."
Lack of space quickly became a problem, as the number of patients grew substantially. An adjoining house was purchased to provide an extension, but a satisfactory solution was found only with the move to a new building at Yorkhill in 1914.
Reference: Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, print 932b
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow Caledonian University, Research Collections, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work
Keywords:
child care, children, children's nurses, hospitals, medicine, nurses' training schemes, patients, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, women