Jane Brooks is a British nurse historian and is currently a senior lecturer in the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Manchester.
Jane has been an active member in the RCN History of Nursing Forum, including several terms as a committee member. She was awarded her PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2005 and over the ensuing 20 years has produced a wealth of research increasingly focused on nursing work in the Second World War. In addition to many scholarly articles, two previous books: One Hundred Years of Wartime Nursing Practices, co-authored with Christine Hallett (MUP 2015) and, Negotiating Nursing: British Army Sisters and Soldiers in the Second World War (MUP 2018) demonstrate her expertise in this area.
Jewish Refugees and the British Nursing Profession: A Gendered Opportunity explores the lives of female Jewish refugees who fled Nazi persecution and became nurses. During the time preceding the Second World War there were chronic nursing shortages, which became even more acute as the war progressed. Refugees were sought by the profession to fill vacancies but despite this need many hospitals refused to employ Continental Jews, making this a mixed experience for many of the women involved. After the war, many remained in Britain, giving their service and career to the nursing profession here.
The book explores the changes in their status and what happened in their lives from the war years to the foundation of the National Health Service and to the latter decades of the twentieth century. In doing so it gives visibility and a voice to a generation of women who might otherwise have been lost to history.
The Lavinia L. Dock award is a highly competitive and prestigious achievement. It is awarded by the American Association for the History of Nursing for books demonstrating exemplary historical research written by an experienced scholar.
For Jane, this is justly deserved recognition for a book which is the culmination of several years of meticulous, sensitive research.
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