About

Welcome: Dr Madonna Grehan, Director (Hon), ANMHP

Welcome to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery History Project (ANMHP), a self-funding autonomous project hosted by the Department of Nursing at the University of Melbourne's School of Health Sciences. The ANMHP aims to increase the profile of nursing and midwifery history in the community, and ensure that historically important nursing and midwifery resources are identified, conserved, and accessible.

  • Objectives
    • Support historical scholarship in nursing and midwifery, and improve the quality and scope of this scholarship
    • Promote the study of nursing and midwifery history at schools during primary and secondary education, and at undergraduate and postgraduate levels
    • Provide world-wide access to Australian nursing and midwifery resources
    • Encourage cooperative links between ANMHP, nursing and midwifery groups, health organisations and institutions to facilitate collaborative work
    • Assist in the preservation of historical materials through the registration of relevant archives, museums and collections
    • Encourage sufficient resources to meet the ANMHP objectives by inviting contributions from the professions and the community to maintain the program
  • Internet register of resources
    • Centres which support Australian nursing and midwifery historiography of individual nurses and midwives
    • Biographies of individual nurses and midwives
    • Directory of nursing and midwifery historical collections within archives of Australian hospitals, government, professional associations, veterans' organisations, in local and state museums and in personal collections

    The ANMHP offers a forum for staging exhibitions on healthcare history in Australia. Its inaugural exhibition was held at the University of Melbourne's Medical History Museum in 1998. The Medical History Museum is part of the University's Johnston-Need Medical History Unit. Curated by Dr Sioban Nelson, it was entitled: Feminine Industry: nursing work at the bedside and beyond.

  • Research

    Students in Nursing at the University of Melbourne's School of Health Sciences may undertake historical scholarship in the Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Nursing by Research programs.

    The ANMHP is one of many interdisciplinary developments within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences that welcome the contribution of scholarship from the humanities to the study of the health sciences. The ANMHP has links with the Centre for Health and Society, an interdisciplinary centre within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

  • Advice: Preservation of historical materials

    The ANMHP does not require historical material, but can offer advice on the preservation of nursing and midwifery historical material.

    For guidelines on the specific management of health collections, see South East Sydney Area Health Service: Health Heritage Preservation Committee Policy.

    For guidelines on documentary management, see the University of Melbourne's eScholarship Research Centre (eSRC).

    ANMHP is linked to eSRC. eSRC continues earlier work of the Australian Science Archives Project (ASAP) and the Australian Science and Technology Institute Heritage Centre (AusTEHC).

    For guides on preservation and conservation, see:

    • Museum Methods from Museums Australia
    • State Library of Queensland Conservation Advice
    • Power House Museum Conservation Resources
    • Caring for your wartime memorabilia. Department of Veterans' Affairs Canberra (2001)
    • The Collections Council
    • Collections Australia Network
  • Acknowledgements

    Thank you to our foundation sponsors: Peter and Tim Avery; Sydney Hospital Graduate Nurses Association; College of Nursing (incorporating the CoN NSW); Alfred Hospital Nurses League; Royal College of Nursing Australia; QLD University of Technology; Joan Durdin; School of Nursing; The University of Melbourne; Nurses Board of Western Australia; Richard Burbidge/Judith Godden; Nurses Board of the Australian Capital Territory; School of Nursing, Curtin University.