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Scottish Medicine – An Illustrated History
Author: Helen Dingwall
Publisher: Birlinn
Pages: 286pp
ISBN: 9781780270180
Review
At £30, this comprehensive, illustrated history of Scottish medicine is a bargain. Its breadth is comparable to Edinburgh physician and medical historian JD Comrie’s History of Scottish Medicine, first published in 1932.
This new book provides a background to medical history in and beyond Scotland. It is learned and well laid out, though without references. Do not be put off by the fact that nursing does not appear in the index, or a statement in the introduction saying that this volume does not cover the nursing profession.
Nursing is actually mentioned often in the text, as is midwifery. Illustrations include a 19th century portrait of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary staff nurse Janet Porter and photographs of district nurses on the Fair Isle and Lewis.
The rise in nurses’ pay that came with the founding of the NHS boosted the nursing workforce, which had been depleted during the war. One interesting comment made in the book’s final section is that, until the 1970s, the NHS had been revered ‘like a church’, but thereafter it was regarded more as ‘a garage’.
Reviewer: Laurence Dopson
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The RCN Publishing Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal College of Nursing, the world's largest organisation for nurses. RCN Publishing produces one weekly, eight monthly and two quarterly nursing publications. Nursing Standard, the flagship journal, is the UK's biggest selling weekly for nursing. It is produced by RCN Publishing Company along with a suite of specialist nursing journals - Cancer Nursing Practice, Mental Health Practice, Learning Disability Practice, Nursing Children and Young People, Nursing Management, Emergency Nurse, Nursing Older People, Nurse Researcher and Primary Health Care. RCN Publishing Company also produce the RCN Bulletin, a major source of up-to-the-minute information for RCN members in all specialities, grades and working environments. With the latest nurse vacancies from trusts nationwide, it has become the most cost-effective nurse recruitment magazine available.