ABSTRACT
Ann Simnet undertook one of the first studies of the social structure of nursing based on institutional records. In the nursing records of St Bar tholomew’s Hospital (Bart’s) she found information concerning the occu pations of nurse recruits’ fathers. Such data could shed light on the social standing of such women before they entered the hospital, and indicated that at Bart’s they did become progressively more middle class in the period between 1881 and 1892 (see Figure 2.1).5
