| 1899 | The Australasian Trained Nurses Association (ATNA) is formed in Sydney by nurses and medical practitioners. The majority of the executive positions are held by male medical practitioners. The ATNA's concerns are with professional issues relating to training and standards of practice. There are stringent membership requirements relating to length of training, moral character and competency. Final examinations for nurses in training are conducted by the ATNA. Also in this year a Midwifery Nurses Auxiliary Branch is formed for nurses who complete six months midwifery training.
In 1899, the ATNA has a total of 224 members: of these, 174 are nurses and 50 are doctors. By 1905, the total membership in Australia expands considerably to 1389; 1015 of these are general nurses, 249 midwifery nurses and 125 medical practitioners. In 1902 the annual subscription fee is 10 shillings and sixpence for general nurses, 5 shillings for midwifery nurses and one guinea for doctors. |
| 1901 | The Victorian Trained Nurses Association isformed. In 1904 this becomes the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association (RVTNA). |
| 1903 | Royal Brisbane Hospital works to open an ATNA Branch in Queensland. ATNA publishes a journal called Australasian Nurses Journal. |
| 1904 | ATNA Queensland Branch is formed by a meeting of 22 doctors and 70 nurses as a consequence of dissatisfaction with some nursing practices, and to exert greater control over the employment of untrained nurses. Its aims are professional and educational - there are no industrial objects. Its State Council consists of seven medical doctors and fourteen nurses. Nurses can hold only two executive positions: Joint Vice-President and Joint Honorary Secretary. |
| 1905 | South Australian Branch of ATNA formed. |
| 1907 | Western Australian Branch of ATNA formed |
| 1908 | Tasmanian Branch ATNA formed. |
| 1912 | Queensland is the first state to gain government registration for nurses. The Health Act covers the registration of all midwives, nurses and physiotherapists until 1928 when the Nurses Registration Act is passed. When the Bill to establish the Health Act is first introduced in Parliament the ATNA is successful in having the Bill amended and as a consequence a five member Queensland Nurses Registration Board, including two medical practitioners or nurses nominated by ATNA, is established. From 1912 final examinations are conducted by the board rather than by ATNA. |
| 1921 | In Queensland ATNA enters the industrial arena in the legal sense when it registers as a union of employees. A rival organisation, the Queensland Nurses' Association (QNA), is formed by nurses in Brisbane hospitals with a membership of 221 nurses. QNA lodges a claim with the Industrial Commission seeking increased salaries, a 48 hour week, payment for overtime and work on statutory holidays. ATNA opposes the claim. An award is granted providing standard hours and wages. However nurses are denied the 48 hour week (introduced by the Industrial Arbitration Act of 1916), and instead the award provides for 112 hours per fortnight (56 hours per week) on the basis of the nature of the work, the unavailability of trained staff and the cost of additional staff and accommodation. In his judgment of the first nurses' award in 1921, T.W. McCawley, President of the Court of Industrial Arbitration, Queensland, said that
The Industrial Arbitration Act of 1916 requires the Court to establish a forty-eight hour week in industries, unless where it can be shown that paramount public importance otherwise requires. It cannot be doubted that the sick ... would be very greatly inconvenienced if the Court were now ... to require all hospitals to establish a forty-eight hour week.
An editorial of The Medical Journal of Australia describes the QNA as a "misguided body of foolish virgins". It says that while "nurses needed protection from exploitative employment practices, they should not be free to conduct their own affairs". |
| 1924 | The ATNA in five states and the Victorian Trained Nurses Association establish a Federal Council known as the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF). An amendment to the Industrial Arbitration Act introduces the standard 44 hour week. |
| 1925 | QNA successfully claim an 88 hour fortnight (44 hour week) granted by the Commission as an award entitlement. The ATNA and many of its members were opposed to the reduction in hours, in view of the impact on training and on patients. |
| 1928 | The Nurses' and Masseurs' Registration Board is set up with all nurses on a register maintained by the ATNA accepted for registration. |
| 1930 | The ATNA Federal Council vote that minimum hours should be 96 per fortnight (48 per week). Employers successfully appeal the 1925 award decision. |
| 1932 | An amendment to the Industrial Arbitration Act reintroduced a standard 44 hour week. Certain occupations (i.e. domestic servants and seamen) were excluded and the court agreed with the ATNA that nurses should also be excluded. Hours for hospital domestic staff were reduced to 40 per week - nurses continued to work 96 hours per fornight (48 per week). |
| 1934 | The RVTNA is registered under The Companies Act as the Royal Victorian College of Nursing. |
| 1937 | The Federal Council of the reconstituted ANF meet. ANF Branches make an effort to obtain members and hospitals are approached asking for preference to be given tomembers of the ANF. The federal body affiliates with the International Council of Nurses (ICN). Shortly after the outbreak of World War II the ICN and member associations go into recess for the duration of the war. |
| 1943 | Eunice Paten is the first nurse to be elected President of the ANF Queensland Branch. The ATNA successfully applied to the Queensland Industrial Court for salary increases - the first increase, apart from basic wage increases, since 1921. Nurses were leaving the profession in large numbers for more highly paid employment and attracting new recruits had become difficult. |
| 1948 | A majority vote to exclude nursing assistants from the new federal body causes a split in the ranks of nursing unions. The Australian United Nurses' Association (AUNA) is formed and covers all nurses. AUNA is registered in the Commonwealth Arbitration Court and successfully makes application for an award covering nurses in repatriation hospitals.
The ANF is still in existence due to its affiliation with the International Council of Nurses with Registered Nurse members only. It does not amalgamate with the AUNA which, in 1953 becomes ANF Employees' Section (ANFES). The NSW Nurses' Association does not unite with AUNA.
State legislation makes all awards conform with the 40 hour week. |
| 1949 | The nursing organisations sign a Memorandum and Articles of Association for the College of Nursing Australia. |
| 1954 | Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II approves the use of the Royal prefix. The title becomes the Royal Australian Nursing Federation. From this year on ATNA State Branches (except for NSW) alter their own title. |
| 1956 | The ATNA Queensland Branch changes its name to Royal Australian Nursing Federation. |
| 1959 | The National Education Commission is formed and undertakes a project on the 'wastage of nurses'. |
| 1961 | The College of Nursing Australia establishes a branch in Queensland. The RANF organises a national biennial conference. |
| 1969 | Following a lengthy political campaign by RANF Queensland Branch for an improvement in nurse education, the Minister for Health announces that the general nursing course would be reduced from four to three years with lectures in employers' time instead of in the nurse's own time. |
| 1970 | The state government gazettes a new Schedule of Study to provide an increase in the minimum hours of lectures to be received by student nurses from 148 to 840. |
| 1971 | The newly integrated RANF comes into existence with state branches, e.g. RANF Queensland Branch Union of Employees. July of this year also sees the launch of the Australian Nurses Journal. |
| 1976 | Two individual legal entities are recognised - the RANF Queensland Branch and the RANF Queensland Branch Union of Employees. Proposed elections for both lapse. |
| 1982 | As a result of the 1981/82 Council ballot, two separate Councils are elected - one for the RANF Queensland Branch Union of Employees and one for the RANF Queensland Branch (of the Federal body), thus brining about the physical separation of both organisations.
In November of this year the RANF Queensland Branch Union of Employees changes its name to the Queensland Nurses' Union of Employees (QNU) and continues alone. |
| 1983 | The Queensland Nurses' Union has jurisdiction in state award areas and the RANF Queensland Branch has jurisdiction in federal award areas. |
| 1984 | ANF Federal Council votes for the removal of the no strike clause from its rules.
The Federal government announces support for the transfer of preregistration nurse education ot higher education institutions by 1993. |
| 1985 | The QNU affiliates with the Trades and Labour Council of Queensland, now known as Queensland Council of Unions (QCU). |
| 1988 | The 'Royal' prefix is dropped from the RANF. |
| 1989 | ANF and QNU harmonise - this is not a true amalgamation. |
| 1991 | QNU Career Structure |
| 1993 | Hospital based training finishes in Queensland; all registered nurses will be university trained from this point. |
