In April 2022, the History of Nursing Forum committee supported by the RCN Professional Lead for the History of Nursing sought interest from History Forum members interested in undertaking on-line training provided by the Wellcome Trust in how to add to and edit Wikipedia pages. The aim was to recognise the many nurses who had been trailblazers in their day and whose career histories had never been fully recognised. It was clear that while the history of many hospitals and their significant associated personnel were cited, matrons and significant nurses from the many areas of nursing practice were largely absent.
The aim was to increase the presence of nurses on appropriate current Wikipedia sites and to give notable nurses, such as RCN Fellows, matrons and educationalists who had played major roles in developing the profession their own Wikipedia post. Users of Wikipedia will know that names in blue indicate that there is a link to further information while names in red have not been researched. The project therefore was called ‘Women in Red.’
This initiative attracted a number of volunteers from across the UK, both working and retired. The group also included a student from QUB Belfast who has written a blog about how interesting she found the experience. This can be found in the History Forum blog page.
The training and support given by the tutor, Alice White, has made the learning experience very non-threatening with few dropping out. What has been encouraging for everyone participating has been the ‘hits’ achieved following the uploads. What is so satisfying with this project is that all participants can work at their own speed and as all the sessions are virtual, volunteers are from across the UK.
Following the success of the first tranche of volunteers, a second training session was offered for new volunteers in September 2023 and the project is slowly and steadily adding names and information to a variety of Wikipedia sites and giving prominent nurses their own page, for example Matrons Kathleen Robb from Belfast, Annie McIntosh and Rachael Annie Cox-Davies from London, and Helen Gregory Smith from Glasgow. Other women added include Fellows of the Royal College of Nursing such as Peggy Nuttall, and educationalists. Other members are updating hospital pages to add individual matrons names and government reports on health care and correcting existing pages about nursing.
In November 2023, the group was invited to present an overview of the project in a short five-minute presentation at the annual Wikimedia UK community on-line meeting. Dr Sarah Rogers agreed to present the rationale and achievements on behalf of the group. The other presentations were from very diverse and equally exciting projects and were very complementary and impressed by our achievements. To date we have had over seven million page views, written 21 new pages, edited 275 articles, and added thousands of references. To everyone’s delight Sarah accepted the Wikimedia UK, Partnership of the Year award on behalf of the team at the online event. The trophy is currently visiting the RCN office in Northern Ireland, before going to the RCN in Scotland, and then back on display in RCN London HQ.
Please do look out for future training projects and consider joining our supportive team. We meet online monthly for an hour and have a dedicated Teams channel where we can ask questions and get advice. We have all learned so much and are ably supported by Teresa Doherty, Professional Lead for the History of Nursing, and Alice White who worked at the Wellcome Foundation.
It is a fantastic project, and great to be raising the awareness of nurses and nursing.
Dr Sarah Rogers and Margaret Graham
February 2024
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