Género

7.1.1.1 Local Nurses training in the UK

Before the local nursing training for the professional nursing qualification began in the colony, some form of nursing training was provided to very small numbers of local nursing students in the UK, the Medical and Health Report (ONA, 1951:2) reports that:

“Three Adenites were in training at a hospital in England for the S.R.N certificate”.

The above statement suggests that the colonial authority started sending local students to study for the S.R.N course in the UK from 1950 or perhaps from even before then. No specific data exists that informs us exactly when the three students from Aden were sent to the UK, but it is clear that at the time of writing the above mentioned annual report which is in 1951, those students were already in the UK. This in turn suggests that if those students were not the first batch of students to be sent to the UK, there were probably some local

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professional nurses had already returned from the UK after completing their courses and that they were already part of the nursing staff in the colony. Now there is no data to support this argument. but it could be that the plans to train local nurses inside the UK were prepared for before the period currently under review. This question opens up more room for future research on the nature and extent of nursing training during an earlier period of time.

The three nursing students, who were mentioned in the above report, were also referred to as “The three local Arabs” in the same annual report but for the year 1952. These students returned to SA in 1952 and according to the report they proved to be very successful. The same individuals were referred to differently in the same series of reports, but it is possible, that the reports of 1951 and 1952 were written by different authors and that each had a slightly different perception of the local population. It is even possible that the phrase ‘three local Arabs’ was intended to have negative connotations, yet we cannot prove this.

Significantly, the Medical and Health Report (ONA, 1954:17) reports the following:

“One male S.R.N took up his duties during the year. The training of Arab Male staff as state registered nurses has proved of considerable benefit to the hospital”.

The above quote is useful as it implies that the three local nursing students who were sent to the UK were males. This in turns suggests that the colonial authority in Aden was perhaps biased in sending male local nursing students to the UK for their S.R.N certificate rather than females. The quote has also pointed to the benefit of training those Arab male nurses without mentioning what the benefit was and raises the question of why Arab female nurses would not be as beneficial as their male counterparts?

Records indicate that the colonial government continued sending local nursing students to the UK for their nursing training. According to the Medical and Health Report (ONA, 1955), seven scholarships, including one female, were

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awarded by the colonial government during the year 1955 for the study of professional nursing training in the UK. The same report advises that of these mentioned scholarships awarded, two students one male and one female did not complete the nursing course in the UK in the allotted time, but there is no mention of why this was the case. Other potential questions relate to the proportion of males and females sent to study in the UK and the reasons for this. In addition, we have no data regarding the selection criteria for the eligibility to study nursing training in the UK by the SA students at that period of time. It is quite possible that the colonial authority had allocated seven scholarships without specifying the gender of the applicants. However, based on the above mentioned quote in relation to the hospital benefit of sending male students to the UK for their nursing training, there is a strong likelihood that the colonial authority allocated six scholarships for male student nurses and only one for females. If this is indeed true, one of the question arises as to why would the Colonial authority prefer to have more local male nurses than local female nurses, contradicting the norm in their motherland (UK) where nursing at that period of time was predominantly a female profession. SA is a completely different cultural and political setting than the colonial power’s homeland. Under the colonial administration, laws and norms could completely and easily altered if this ultimately served the interest of the coloniser. This in fact takes us back to the criteria determining the selection of students for study in the UK. Here I am not referring only to gender but to other criteria such as the local students’ standards or level of education for instance.

The reason why the issue of standards of education of local student nurses is mentioned is because at that time this was a source of concern towards training local nurses inside the colony, and one may assume the same concern existed when it comes to sending local nursing students to the UK, especially in regards to these students’ comprehension of the English language. The unsatisfactory standards of education were mentioned on at least two occasions in the Annual Medical and Health Reports when reference is made to local nursing training or in other words when talking about nursing training in the colony.

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slow progress. The lack of applicants of suitable educational qualifications to enable them to benefit from such training is very disappointing”.

Medical and Health Report (ONA, 1958:19) Moreover,

“The scheme of the local training of nurses is labouring, clearly due to a lack of sufficient numbers of applicants of suitable educational qualifications”.

Medical and Health Report (ONA, 1959:17) No mention is made, however, to the standards of education of the students who were sent to the UK. Instead, the report comments that:

“The students undergoing formal nurse training for state registration in the UK are making satisfactory progress”.

Medical and Health Report (ONA, 1958:19) Besides, the same report for the year 1957 reported that all the six nursing students who studied in the UK were successful in passing the first examination for S.R.N and their further progress was also reported to be satisfactory. Amongst these nursing students, two returned to Aden during the same year,

“One having gained his State Registered Nursing and the other her S. R.N. and S.C.M“.

Medical and Health report (ONA, 1957: 2)

The subsequent Annual Medical and Health reports of the years (1958-1964) made no mention of any more local student nurses studying in the UK for their S.R.N certificates or to any students who had been sent or who were going to be sent to the UK. The reason for this could be that the colonial authority decided not to send any more local nursing students to the UK since the local nursing training in the colony had begun.

162 7.1.1.2 Local Nurses’ training in the Colony

In regards to the local training of nurses or training local nurses in the colony, according to the records accessed from TNA, there were two types of this training: the professional and the practical nursing training. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that our data show no evidence that local nursing professional training existed elsewhere in SA apart from the colony of Aden. In fact, this information is not surprising as the reason behind training local nurses in general was considered to be less relevant to the rest of SA, one of the reasons to relieve and support the CNs as well as shortage of nursing in general and the difficulties of recruiting more CNs. And as the majority of the CNs, if not all, worked mainly in Aden and that only a small number of CNs worked elsewhere in SA for a short period of time, the need to train local nurses in the rest of SA was not central.