Modelos de los determinantes sociales y las desigualdades sociales en

What we mean here by independent nursing services is the type of nursing services that were delivered by an independent bodies or personnel who had little support but maybe some sort of ties and collaboration with the colonial authorities. Nevertheless, they also existed largely due to the colonial presence.

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According to the British Red Cross Society Overseas Branches Reports accessed from the BRC archive, The British Red Cross, had its own trained nursing personnel. Thus, in addition to the ordinary humanitarian services, the BRC provided nursing care when needed. According to the accessed BRC reports, the BRC supported the health authority in Aden when a need arose, for example:

“One member who is a trained nurse, worked for a while in the causality department when the hospital was experiencing staffing difficulties, and

another nurse helped regularly with clerical work for the Matron”

(BRC, 1958: 4)

In another British Red Cross Society Overseas Branch Report for the years 1965-1966, mention is made of a two-day strike in the hospitals of Aden, when the BRC society had to send number of their nurses to help in the wards, in the QEH and in the Maternity Hospital (BRC:1966).

The records also reveal that in 1966, the BRC society contributed to the appointment of a health visitor to work in the colony, though mainly in the child welfare clinics in Aden. It subsequently handed over this service to the government and the BRC Health Visitor went to Hadramout (Eastern Protectorate) to establish a similar service there. However, the records reveal no evidence of other BRC operations within SA outside the colony of Aden other than Hadramout (BRC: 1966).

The accessed records from the BRC Archive place considerable emphasis on the BRC society’s role in training staff on nursing and first aid practice, and gave rather less attention to explaining where these staff worked. The same reports tell us that the BRC had a role to play in government hospitals especially in organizing relief, distributing food and helping to place the sick. It is not clear

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from the data where these nurses did their nursing training and how these nurses, and we mean here the BRC nurses, join the BRC society?

Another form of an independent nursing service was provided by nurses who worked in SA as nurses but who worked autonomously and with little help or support. The researcher in this study was fortunate to be able to interview two British nurses who worked in SA during the period 1950-1967. In fact, the two interviews opened up a new perspective of how nursing was looked at and delivered at that time in the colony. From the two interviews we learn a great deal about the two nurses who worked in completely different not only settings but also, under different conditions from the previously mentioned nursing groups.

The reason this section is entitled independent nursing services is because those nurses worked independently and had little support from the colonial administration in recognition for their contribution to the health and wellbeing of the population. Here it is worth mentioning that the two nurses looked solely after the indigenous people of the colony. Yet, there are some similarities and dissimilarities between the two nurses in terms of where they worked and the amount of support they were able to call upon.

In the next part of this chapter, we will learn more about these two nurses, as the present section is more concerned with identifying the different sources and organizations that provided nursing services. However, at this point it is relevant to point out that the two British nurses came to SA for the same reason. This was because their spouses worked for the colonial administration. This suggests that the two nurses were also, although indirectly, a product of the colonial presence. Both nurses stayed in SA for a considerable period of time. Interestingly, in both cases, it was because their husbands spoke good Arabic and thus were needed to stay longer in the colony. The two wives or nurses had to travel very often with husbands who in turn had to be in certain places.

“My husband was in the Army so we travelled, I travelled with him after that, first we went we were in Dorset he was at

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the school of technology and then to Germany and then because he had been in Arabia before we got married and because he had quite a lot of good Arabic he was asked to

go back by the Army to do a job in Aden”. (GG, Interview)

“My husband was a political officer working for the British government we both went to Arabia where he had already been there for 7 years in the deserts and Mukalla”.

(FF, Interview) Finding more about those nurses, who they were and what their background was, is what a later part in this chapter will attempt to answer. The next section explores the role of those nurses or nurses who worked in SA. What they actually did and what was the type of nursing work that they have undertaken.

6.2 Part 2: What was the role of those nurses within the overall provision