Dame Rosalind Paget Award
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Dame Rosalind Paget Award |
The Dame Rosalind Paget Trust was set up in 1919 with a number of aims, including 'doing any such things as will in the opinion of the trustees improve the status, education and wellbeing of midwives'. Following the closure in 1997 of Rosalind Paget's publishing company, Nursing Notes Ltd, the remaining funds from the Trust were donated to the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust. The Trustees decided that this award (of £500) should be given on an annual basis to the highest-scoring application for a Iolanthe Midwives Award which aims progress practice though holistic care for woman and families.
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Applying for an award or bursary Dame Rosalind Paget Award Delivering Best Practice Award
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Rosalind Paget was born in Liverpool in 1855. She qualified as a nurse in 1884 and as a midwife in 1885. She is remembered as a founding member of the Midwives' Institute (which became the Royal College of Midwives) and for her work to improve the status of midwives. She tirelessly petitioned Parliament for their registration; a goal which was achieved in 1902 with the first Midwives Act. Following this, the Central Midwives Board was set up and Rosalind served as a member from 1902 to 1924.
However, Rosalind was also instrumental in the regulation of some complementary therapies. Growing demand for massage in the 1880s led Rosalind to qualify as a masseuse at the London Hospital. Progressive members of the medical profession found it 'refreshing and invigorating for their patients'. However lack of regulation caused problems and in the 1890s the British Medical Journal warned its readers against the use of massage 'because of the number of unscrupulous persons involved in it'. Rosalind with colleagues set out to resolve this problem, and after careful preparation the Society of Trained Masseuses was launched. It later became the Chartered Society of Massage and Medical Gymnastics, then the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists.
It was said that Rosalind Paget had 'deep compassion, honesty and respect for others'. In her practice, whether as nurse, masseuse or midwife, she 'cared more for the comfort of the patients than for hospital routines and techniques … if anyone had a mental or a physical need, she had to make it better if she could'. She 'was concerned above all for the health of the mother … but the midwives themselves were equally dear to her heart'.
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Picture reproduced with kind permission of the Royal College of Midwives |
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© Iolanthe Midwifery Trust |
Registered charity number: 287283 |