Sydney Hospital - Lucy Osburn

Lucy Osburn

New South Wales politician Henry Parkes (who would later be premier) was concerned about the state of the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary and appealed for help to Florence Nightingale for trained nurses. Consequently, in March 1868 Lucy Osburn was sent out as Lady Superintendent of the Infirmary and was accompanied by five other trained nurses. Osburn won Parkes' trust and began the challenging task of cleaning up the crumbling, foul-smelling and vermin-infested Infirmary. A week after their arrival they had a royal patient, when the Duke of Edinburgh was wounded by a would-be assassin at Clontarf.

But in spite of the public acclaim this brought them, Lucy Osburn and her staff faced much resistance in their efforts to reform the infirmary. In addition to the appalling conditions, they met with hostility and opposition from doctors and the Board. The idea of gentlewomen working as hospital nurses was still novel, and to many people shocking. Lucy was continually obstructed by the surgeons and personally attacked in the Parliament.

A Royal Commission on public charities in 1873 condemned the Sydney Infirmary, accusing the management committee of neglect and interfering in the duties of the nurses. Osburn was vindicated and the commission praised her work toward the improvement in the standards of nursing. Most of the Lucy Osburn sisters took up positions as matrons at various hospitals. By these means the Nightingale teaching and standards became accepted practice in the hospital system of the colony. By the time she returned to England she had laid the foundation of modern nursing in New South Wales.

Lucy Osburn retired from nursing in 1878 and in 1881 the Infirmary's name was changed to the Sydney Hospital. She left Sydney in 1884 and returned to London. After some years nursing among the sick and poor in London, Lucy died of diabetes at her sister’s home in Harrogate on 22 December 1891.

Ms Osburn was described by her successor at Sydney Hospital, Miss McKay, as "an exceptional woman" who regarded nursing "as the highest employment" to be entered with "a spirit of devotion". One of her common recommendations to those taking up the profession was reported as being "you nurses should exist for patients, not they for you".