Lucy Osburn

Founder of modern nursing in Australia

• Born: April 1, 1836
• Birthplace: Leeds, Yorkshire, England
• Died: December 22, 1891
• Place of death: Harrogate, Yorkshire, England

Education: Nightingale School of Nursing, St. Thomas's Hospital, London

Significance: Lucy Osburn was a nurse best known for reforming nursing practice in the New South Wales colony and establishing the first nursing school in Australia.

Background

Lucy Osburn was born on April 1, 1836, in Leeds, Yorkshire, England to Ann Rimington and William Osburn. Her father was a merchant of distilled spirits, a social reformer, and the author of several books on Egypt. After her father's bankruptcy, when Lucy was six years old, her aunt adopted her. As a young student, Osburn studied a variety of subjects, including Latin and German. Her growing interest in nursing led her to visit hospitals in Germany, Holland, and Austria. In 1856 she accepted an offer from Edward Atkinson, a physician's assistant, to travel to the English Hospital in Jerusalem to work as a governess for his children. Later in her life she credited time spent at the Jerusalem hospital for sparking her interest in nursing. It is also likely that she contracted malaria there, one of several chronic illnesses to affect her throughout her life.

In September 1866 she enrolled in the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. After completing her training on September 29, 1867, she visited a number of other hospitals, including King's College Hospital, where she studied midwifery.

During Osburn's time at the Nightingale Training School, Sir Henry Parkes contacted Florence Nightingale to request her assistance. Parkes, a politician from the New South Wales colony, wanted Nightingale to dispatch a nursing team to the colony with the goal of training a new nursing workforce for the Sydney Dispensary and Infirmary in the Nightingale method of nursing. Nightingale obliged and assembled a team to travel to Sydney that included Osburn and six other trained nurses. They each signed a term of employment contract for three years, with Osburn to serve as Lady Superintendent. On December 2, 1867, the group left England; they arrived in Sydney on the evening of March 4, 1868.

Life's work

On March 12, 1868, one week after Osburn's arrival in Sydney, she became involved in a high-profile diplomatic incident. Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrived at the Sydney Dispensary after being shot in an assassination attempt. Osborn supervised his nursing and began the implementation of Nightingale nursing practices. One of her first actions was to hire and train new nurses. She established a management hierarchy and systemized the training processes for nurses.

From the beginning, one of the main challenges Osburn faced was the desperate condition of the hospital wards. The Sydney infirmary wards were dilapidated, vermin-infested buildings built above open sewers. As she worked to advocate for better conditions, she increasingly found herself at odds with the governing boards, the doctors, and the staff superintendent. She was held personally accountable for the atrocious state of the wards, despite the fact that the governing board controlled the funds and workforce for facility repair. In 1870 she was summoned by the New South Wales Legislative Assembly to face criticism for her performance as lady superintendent. The assembly found that, although no progress had been made in the improvement of facility conditions, the patient mortality rate was decreasing. Osburn was permitted to keep her job.

Her relationships with the original nurses who accompanied her were fraught with conflict, which led to antipathy. Osburn eventually threatened to leave Sydney at the end of her three-year contract if three of the other nurses' contracts were renewed. The government obliged her request.

Osburn also faced challenges due to her religious beliefs. Osburn attended Christ Church Saint Laurence, which adhered to an Anglo-Catholic doctrine. This contrasted with the Evangelical beliefs of members of the board of the Sydney Infirmary. Evangelical leaders suspected Osburn of heresy and accused her of bible-burning. In 1870 a Commission of Inquiry cleared her of this charge, but it was the first of many religious-based investigations into Osburn's actions.

In 1873 a Royal Commission was appointed to review the works of public charities in Sydney, including the hospital wards. Alfred Roberts, a surgeon and fierce opponent of Osburn, told the committee that Osburn had deviated from Nightingale practices and was criminally ineffective. However, the Royal Commission into Public Charities report vindicated Osburn, noting that the reprehensible state of the facilities was due to facilities mismanagement apart from Osburn's efforts. The committee also noted the quality improvement in nursing care under Osburn's leadership. The committee report helped to clarify Osburn's job-specific roles and responsibilities, however criticisms based on her management style, her religion, and the actions of her nurses continued until Osburn's resignation in 1884.

Upon her return to England, Osburn retrained herself for a new position through the Metropolitan and National Nursing Association for Providing Trained Nurses for the Sick Poor. Her final years were spent caring for the poor in London slums. At the beginning of 1891, Osburn resigned from her nursing position and went to live with her sister Anne in Harrogate, Yorkshire. There she died from diabetes related complications on December 22, 1891.

Impact

Osburn transformed the practice of nursing in Australia. She successfully established a nursing school in the face of many obstacles and pioneered women's roles in hospital management. The Lucy Osburn–Nightingale museum is located on the first floor of the Sydney Hospital, and in 1984 a monument was erected in her name near Nurses Walk in Sydney.

Personal life

Lucy Osburn had five siblings: William, Henry, Anne, Frances, and Charles. When she was six years old she was adopted by her maternal aunt, also named Lucy. Her mother died when she was eleven. Osburn never married.

Bibliography

Bowd, Douglas. G. Lucy Osburn c. 1836-1891: Founder of the Nightingale System of Nursing at Sydney Hospital. Hawkesbury Press, 1968.

Butler, Annie. "Fighting for Our Rights." Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, vol. 22, no. 10, May 2015, p. 56.

Godden, Judith. Lucy Osburn, a Lady Displaced: Florence Nightingale's Envoy to Australia. Sydney UP, 2006.

Griffith, John. "Osburn, Lucy (1836–1891)." Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/osburn-lucy-4345/text7055. Accessed 8 Nov. 2016.

"Lucy Osburn." Encyclopedia of Australian Science. www.eoas.info/biogs/P004670b.htm. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.

MacDonnell, Freda. Miss Nightingale's Young Ladies: The Story of Lucy Osburn and Sydney Hospital. Angus and Robertson, 1970.

Nelson, Sioban. Say Little, Do Much: Nurses, Nuns and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century, U of Pennsylvania P, 2001.