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The founding of the Swiss Nursing Association

8. April 2019 | Martina Gosteli | Keine Kommentare |

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Right from the start, Anna Heer, the founder of the Swiss School of Nursing (Schweizerische Pflegerinnenschule), also promoted a professional organization for nurses. The improvement of the training was also to be taken as an opportunity to demand adequate pay and correct working conditions.

Employment agency

While the school was still under construction, she and Ida Schneider organized a placement office for private nurses at Schneider’s address in Zurich in 1899. After the opening of the hospital in 1901, the office moved to the Swiss School of Nursing. The placement was free of charge. Only persons with an unblemished reputation made it onto the list. Thanks to this register, the organizers had at their disposal the names of the nurses who could be considered as future members of the planned association.

Anna Heer 1863-1918 (Gosteli Foundation Worblaufen)

Walter Sahli

Anna Heer was not the only person to address the problem of nursing training. In Bern, the physician Walther Sahli (1846-1916) was active almost at the same time. At first, he knew nothing about Heer’s proposals, but immediately contacted her when he heard about them.

Then it happened one by one. While the nursing school was still in the planning phase, Sahli opened the Red Cross School of Nursing at the Lindenhof Hospital in Bern in 1899. In December 1907, as a preliminary stage to the national organization, a Swiss journal of nursing care, the Blätter für Krankenpflege, appeared for the first time. It was a supplement to the journal Das Rote Kreuz. Walter Sahli edited both publications. In 1909, he founded the Nursing Association of Berne. A Zurich section, presided over by Anna Heer, was established shortly thereafter on 25 November 1909.

Walter Sahli 1846-1916 (Swiss Red Cross).

Founding meeting

The two sections formed the basis for the next step, the Swiss union. Anna Heer drafted the statutes, which Walter Sahli further developed in his sense.

On 13 November 1910, the Bern and Zurich sections merged in Olten to form the Swiss Nursing Association (Schweizerischer Krankenpflegebund, today: Schweizerischer Berufsverband der Pflegefachfrauen und Pflegefachmänner SBK). The delegates elected an executive committee of eleven members. Zurich became the seat, Anna Heer President, Walter Sahli Vice President, Ida Schneider Actuary. Membership was reserved for sections. At the request of Sahli, no individual members were admitted.

Minutes of the founding meeting of 13 November 1910 (SBK Archive)

The Red Cross takes over

Anna Heer watched closely how Walter Sahli successfully defended the claims of the Swiss Red Cross and extended its power to more and more areas. In 1903, the Federal Council transferred core competencies in nursing training to the Swiss Red Cross. Secretary Walter Sahli quickly put his ideas into practice. If Anna Heer did not want to be pushed to the sidelines, she had to play along. Some aspects give an idea of how difficult it was for a woman at that time to find her voice.

Anna Heer succeeded in paving the way for maternity nurses to join the association via the Zurich section and ensured the protection of this typical female profession. In 1915, contrary to Sahli’s ideas, she also succeeded in introducing a federal examination for maternity and infant care. After her death, Sahlis’s successor excluded the maternity nurses from the association again.

Aims of the professional association

In the early years, the executive committee dealt with problems that were also regularly on the agenda later: the official dress of nurses, compulsory health insurance – a pressing concern to Anna Heer – the provision of an aid fund and the introduction of a federal examination for nurses to ensure professional standards . Walter Sahli died in 1916. Anna Heer had shortly before resigned from the presidency.

Anna Heer literally committed herself to the Swiss Nursing Association until her death. These were turbulent weeks. The Spanish flu raged, Switzerland stood a few days before a general strike. Anna Heer travelled to the board meeting in Olten on 9 November 1918. It was her last public appearance. One month later, she was dead.

Text: Verena E. Müller

Abgelegt unter: ExhibitionsHistory of Medicine
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