Private duty nursing : the last days in Central Queensland

Private duty nursing plummeted from being the pinnacle of a nurse's carrer in 1900 to being almost non-existent by the 1970's. This paper explores the nature of private duty nursing in the 1960's and 1970's and seeks to identify factors contributing to the demise of this avenue of work. Three former nurses from Rockhampton, Queensland, were interviewed as part of an oral history project. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed within a historical context. The main factors identified as impacting on private nursing by the 1970's were the opening up of opportunities for married nurses to gain part-time employment in hospitals, the increasing level of technology associated with high dependancy patients, and improved wages and conditions of hospital nurses. While many of the factors relating to the decline of private duty nursing are no longer relevant, other issues that emerged from this study, such as professional isolation, working environments and the ability of the patient to pay for nursing services, warrant consideration by contemporary nurses entering private practice.