Nurses’ Memories of Children’s Hospital Care in The Faroe Islands from Early 1960s to Late 1980s

Abstract

Interview data from retired Faroese nurses, along with photos, excerpts from folders, working sheets, and newspaper articles that the nurses brought with them, contributed to this oral history about children’s care in hospital in the Faroe Islands from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. The study period represents decades during which human aspects of the special needs sick children have, such as attachment, closeness, comfort and compassion, were secondary, and hygiene, strict rules and regulations were primary. The children were hospitalized without parents until family-centered care was introduced in 1988. From that point on, parents were allowed to be with their hospitalized sick child at any suitable time. The nurses recalled the ward and the ward sister, their work within a strict hierarchical order, the emphasis on hygiene and quite detailed practical rules and regulations, and how and why they now and then were challenging the rules. The additional data shed light on these memories. The study adds knowledge about Faroese nursing history and gives modern nurses insight into the development of child nursing’s history in a small-scale remote country.