QNI celebrates £5000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant

The Queen’s Nursing Institute has received a £5,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), it was announced today.

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the QNI’s project, ‘Community Nursing Heritage Website and Oral Histories’, will share the rich history of community nursing in Britain since 1859 through a new and interactive website.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute has a diverse archive including photographs, journals, exam papers, badges and other documentation going back to Victorian times. There is also a large amount of documentary material, including photographs and stories, from the early years of the National Health Service after 1948. In addition the QNI is gathering oral interviews with some retired Queen’s Nurses about their work and life during this period.

The HLF grant will enable the QNI to create an accessible online resource, making their unique archive available to a much wider audience.

Commenting on the award, Dr Crystal Oldman said: ‘We are delighted to have received this National Lottery funding in the QNI’s 130^th anniversary year. The QNI’s strong community of working and retired Queen’s Nurses have a unique personal record about their service in people’s homes and communities. This HLF funding will enable us to share some of that information with a wider audience and encourage appreciation for the incredible work of community nurses over the years.”

ENDS  

Notes to Editors:

The Queen’s Nursing Institute was founded in 1887 with money collected by the women of England for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. The charity was created to organise the training and organisation of district nurses on a national basis. Nurses trained by the Institute were called Queen’s Nurses, a title that the charity reintroduced in 2007 in a new form. Today there are over 1100 Queen’s Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the charity celebrates its 130^th anniversary this year.

About the Heritage Lottery Fund

Thanks to National Lottery players, we invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about – from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. www.hlf.org.uk .  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #HLFsupported.