The legacy of a formidable woman
One woman’s mission to challenge – and then change – the status quo saw two initiatives that would forever change the face of nursing in New Zealand.
The first was to take nursing into people’s homes, starting what was to become New Zealand’s first district nursing service.
The second was her determination to improve and standardise training for nurses, which was the driving force behind the establishment of the Nurses Registration Act of 1901.
The name Nurse Maude is seen by most as the organisation that has been providing nursing and home support across Canterbury for almost 130 years.
The real Nurse Maude, however, was a determined and complex person who devoted her life to the poor and sick and introduced district nursing to New Zealand.
Nurse Sibylla Emily Maude was appointed to Christchurch Hospital in 1893 and she tried to make changes in the way the hospital was run; in particular, she pushed for improvements in the conditions and training of nurses.
Unfortunately, she was ahead of her time.
Rather than continue to battle the establishment, she resigned in 1896 and set out to nurse the most marginalised in society, beginning what became New Zealand’s first district nursing service, working from a converted shop in Durham Street dispensing medicines, treating injuries and illnesses, and giving clothes to the needy.
Behind Nurse Maude’s uncompromising and direct approach was real compassion and empathy for those most in need of her care. “The most cruel thing you can do”, she often said, “is to take away a family’s self-respect.”
In 1904 Nurse Maude set up the tuberculosis camps, and in 1918 led the nursing during the influenza epidemic, which was to kill more people worldwide than the First World War.
Honoured with the Order of the British Empire in 1934, she only accepted it on the condition it was presented to her privately.
Nurse Maude died on July 12 1935, in Christchurch. People lined the streets of the city for her funeral, and she was later remembered in two stained glass windows, one in the chapel at Christchurch Hospital and another in the chapel of the Community of the Sacred Name.
Today the organisation that carries her name continues to be an integral part of the community, with its base in Merivale. From this hub, it provides district nursing and hospice and community palliative care. Though technology, training, and services available have changed, the patient has remained at the centre of Nurse Maude’s practices.
Currently, it is raising money to build a new $10 million hospice for the people of Canterbury, where it will continue to provide end-of-life care free of charge to patients and their families. Information on this fundraising campaign can be found on the organisation’s website.