| Description | Oral history interview with nurse Miss Eve R D Bendall. 1 x C60 cassette. Track 1: 46m 18s & track 2: 43m 52s.
Summary (4 pages)
Full transcription, LMA 2009.
Eve Bendall was a noted figure in nursing education. In this interview, she talks a little about her early life. Keen to earn her own living, on the suggestion of a friend she began nursing training at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She moved into children's nursing and in the mid-1950s became a tutor. Her first teaching post was in Sheffield. She then moved back to London, working firstly at St George's Hospital and then at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. She was elected to the General Nursing Council (GNC) in 1965, around the time of the Platt Report. She discusses the tensions then existing between the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the GNC, and the reasons behind them. Concerned over the wastage of students, she began some research on her own initiative, and was surprised that it was received positively. With a colleague, she wrote a history of the GNC, published in 1969. She left nursing to study at the University of London and was eventually awarded a PhD. Bendall also worked with Marjorie Simpson. In 1972 she was appointed registrar of the GNC. She talks about the GNC and her work there; the Briggs proposals, and the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act of 1979. After a break of four years from 1977, Bendall joined the English National Board (ENB). She discusses the conflicts between the various bodies at that period and expands a little on the GNC research unit. She compares the roles of the ENB and the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC), and various options for the future. Bendall then talks about her writing, before returning to the workings of the various national bodies and the conflicts between them. |