Mary Seacole was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991 and in 2004 she was voted the greatest Black Briton. (2009) Florence Nightingale on Extending Nursing. He said: ‘As a citizen of the commonwealth, it was particularly important to me to be making a visible contribution in a historic public space.’. Keywords: Crimean War, Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, nursing, pioneers of health care. Each box names a significant figure in the British black community with footballer Walter Tull and artist Yinka Shonibare also honoured. He featured in a set of stamps released in 2018 to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, and was also the first black Army officer to command troops in a regular unit. The 2013 Leadership Awards programme is supported by two nursing unions, the Royal College of Nursing and Unison, both of which promote the placing of her statue at St Thomas' hospital, London, where Nightingale established her first school of nursing. G. Routledge, London. The nursing profession was in flux and, as seen in Box 3, many of the qualities displayed by Seacole are as relevant for HCAs and APs today as they were in the 1850s. Anonymous (1994) Mary Seacole Nursing Award Launched in the United Kingdom. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo. She also nursed the wounded and ill. In 2006, Seacole was also named one of ten 'great Britons,' along with Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare and Charles Darwin, on a series of postage stamps in honour of the founding of the National Portrait Gallery. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/. However, she was told her services were not needed. Copyright © 2018 Lifestyle Wellness Network™, Lifestyle Wellness Health Practitioner Show™, NP on Call™, Lifestyle Health Care™, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window). Journal of Advanced Nursing 9, 427-28. The programme brings Seacole into an elite group of four 'pioneers,' with Dr Edward Jenner, of smallpox vaccine fame, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman medical dean and Aneurin Bevan, the Cabinet minister who brought in the National Health Service in 1948. However, many UK institutions promote this inaccurate story, notably the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Mail, National Army Museum, Royal College of Nursing, BBC and the Departments of Health and Education. Support for the Seacole campaign has built strongly in the nursing profession, aided by major media outlets. Perhaps her most important contribution to public health care was the reform of the workhouse infirmaries, her goal from the time she first visited them in the 1840s, when her family did not permit her to nurse. McDonald L., ed. However, her historical contribution to nursing and society, her legacy, has been revived. Seacole was not only not 'black,' she was not British. McDonald L., ed. MS ‘nursed’ him and patroness in dying days, no specifics given, 1837 FN call to service, wanted to nurse, family did not allow, 1843 MS‘s mother’s boarding house destroyed by fire, rebuilt, 1840s FN visits workhouse infirmaries which ‘broke the visitor’s heart’, 1850 MS travels to Panama, supervises food/clothing production for sale at brother’s hotel/store; opens own store/restaurant; cholera epidemic but no doctor--she treats patients, claims some cures, uses lead acetate. Smith J.P. (2007) Why is There so much Controversy about Mary Seacole's memorial? She deserves much credit, but not as a pioneer nurse or a hero of health care. The announcement called Seacole, 'the famous Jamaican nurse,' and 'a notable humanitarian, whose 'hands-on' approach to nursing has become an inspiration to nurses today' (National Portrait Gallery Press Release 2006). Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo. Smith J.P. (1984) Editorial: Mary Jane Seacole 1805-1881: A Black British Nurse. Royal Mail said the boxes in London, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast have been transformed as part of Black History Month in October. However, her historical contribution to nursing and society, her legacy, has been revived. Sir Lenny Henry, the stand-up comedian, actor, singer, writer and television presenter and co-founder of the Comic Relief charity, is honoured by the postbox in Bedford Street, Belfast. Journal of Advanced Nursing 69, 245-246. Johnetta is the CEO/Founder of Lifestyle Wellness Enterprise. During the Crimean War, she was not nursing, but providing food and drink, for profit, to officers. To the many points on health promotion, disease prevention and patient care made in it, one might add Nightingale's pioneering work in evidence-based health care (McDonald 2001). It would not do her justice or be honorable. Rathbone, Organization of District Nursing; ‘Suggestions for a System of Nursing for Hospitals in India’, August 1866 MS donates 100 bottles of anti-cholera medicine and 100 boxes of pills to Lord Mayor’s Fund (ingredients unknown), 1866 FN starts work on nurses for Australia; on extending workhouse nursing to London; on trained nursing in India, January 1867 fundraising begins, which supported MS for rest of her life, 1867 FN writes brief ‘Suggestions on the Subject of Providing Training and Organizing Nurses for the Sick Poor in Workhouse Infirmaries’ for Parliamentary committee on workhouses, 1868 Nightingale nurses begin work in Sydney, Australia; FN publishes ‘Una and the Lion’ on death of Agnes Jones of Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary; first work on trained nurses for St Pancras Workhouse Infirmary, 1869 Challen paints portrait of MS wearing 3 medals (now at National Portrait Gallery), 1869 works on nurses’ housing at Netley; works on Liverpool Workhouse nursing; analyzes maternal mortality at King’s College, 1870 sends public letters to workhouse nurses; works on relief assistance for Franco-Prussian War; publishes letter in Lancet on cholera, April 1871 Census entry, MS living in Paddington, London, occupation ‘annuitant’, July 1871 Gleichen terracotta bust of MS wearing 3 medals (now at Institute of Jamaica), 1871 FN Census entry: ‘director of Nightingale nurses’; move of Nightingale School to new St Thomas’ Hospital; training school at St Pancras begins; publishes Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions, 1872 first ‘address’ by FN to nurses and probationers; improves lectures for nurses at St Thomas’; trained nurses begin at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. The National Health Service of 1948 is unthinkable without those reforms - when she set out there were no nurses, and bed sharing was common, for example.