Online museum showcases 125 years of home nursing

19 August 2011

The Royal District Nursing Service is showcasing its 125‑year history in a unique online museum.

RDNS Reflections is an interactive website detailing 13 decades, seven themes and more than 500 stories, artefacts and news media.

It portrays a rich, colourful and often deeply moving journey into one of Australia’s oldest and most respected providers of nursing and healthcare.

Interviews and anecdotes from former staff and others shed light on the often tireless and challenging working lives of nursing staff, the gradual modernisation from its modest beginnings, stories from behind the scenes, episodes from out on the road and the inspiring stories of the care that has been the hallmark of RDNS since its beginning.

As well as telling the story of a Melbourne healthcare icon, the museum also tracks the history of the city itself, from the days soon after the gold rush through to modern times.

RDNS grew from humble beginnings when, in the laneways of Melbourne, a solitary nurse set out on foot to care for the sick and poor.

Today, the organisation employs almost 1,700 staff, operates in three states in Australia, as well as New Zealand, and each year provides around 1.8 million nursing visits to almost 35,000 people.

The opening of the museum coincided with District Nursing Week in August – an annual opportunity to celebrate district nurses who care for many thousands of people in their homes around the clock every day.

Minister for Health David Davis officially opened the museum.

Visit the museum

To visit the online museum, go to www.rdnsreflections.com.au.

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