ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the progress of the threatened resignation of over 600 student nurses in London in July 1948. It describes the course of the student nurses’ protest and how it was managed by the professional organisations and trade unions. The chapter considers the background to the dispute and some of the problems within nursing at the birth of the National Health Service. The unrest began on 20 July 1948 when student nurses at St Mary’s Hospital, Plaistow, in the East End of London, opened their first pay packets from their new employer the National Health Service. Some of the protesting student nurses were members of trade unions and the biggest unions involved, the Confederation of Health Service Employees and the National Union of Public Employees held meetings with the students. The professional organisations and the trade unions which represented nurses had been at odds about whether student nurses were students or employees.
