Letter to the Editor

Article Outline

• References
• Copyright

Dear Editor,

I wish to draw your attention to a misstatement in the paper ‘An Australian history of the subordination of midwifery’ by K. Fahy in the journal 20(1) on page 27, where it states that the Australasian Trained Nurses Association (ATNA) was active in the first 30 years of the 19th Century.

The ATNA was not established until the closing years of the 19th Century. It was set up in 1899 through the initiatives of Dr. James Graham and Dr. Norton Manning to provide a system of registration for trained nurses in New South Wales (NSW).¹ Legally qualified medical practitioners and trained nurses were eligible for membership of the ATNA. Other states were soon to follow establishing branches for their own purposes.

In NSW towards the end of the 19th century the medical profession was concerned about the number of untrained women practising midwifery in the state and they made several attempts to have a Midwifery Nurses Bill passed to restrict midwifery to those who had received a course of training. Efforts to have a bill passed failed and in 1900 leading members of the ATNA (predominantly medical practitioners) met to propose the establishment of an auxiliary branch of the ATNA to deal with matters pertaining to the training and registration of midwifery nurses. The Auxiliary Branch set up in 1901 was quick to establish a register for midwifery nurses who had completed a six month training program.²

The ATNA (NSW) with medical practitioners exercising considerable control over its activities became the de-facto registering body for nursing and midwifery until the Nurses Act was passed in 1924.², ³, ⁴, ⁵

Back to Article Outline

References 

1. Australasian Trained Nurses Association (ATNA). Minutes of Preliminary Meetings, 1899–1905. ML MSS, 4144, Box 37.
   • View In Article
2. ATNA. Minutes Book, 1899–1905. ML MSS, 4144, Box 34, p. 6, 26.
   • View In Article
3. Graham J. Obstetric nursing. Australasian Nurses J. 1904;57
   • View In Article
4. New South Wales (NSW). Parliamentary Debates. Nurses Registration Bill, 1923; 5th December, p. 3048.
   • View In Article
5. New South Wales Nurses Registration Board. Minutes Book, 1925; NSW State Archives. Microfilm 2621.
   • View In Article