ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author focuses on interviews with retired district nurses who worked in Scotland at some time during the period 1940 to 1990. She examines each district nurse about how the National Health Service (NHS) affected his or her working life, to be met so often with a puzzled, ‘well, it didn’t really’. The author outlines the historical context within which the nurses on the district prior to 1948 understood their work. More people will meet the nurse at the clinics, health centres and hospital outpatient departments, and they will judge the service by the personal care and consideration they receive.’ The district nurse was frequently the first point of contact for a patient within the system of medical care. Although the district nursing service was described as the most economical section of the NHS, the need to improve efficiency throughout the medical services was becoming clear.