First aid in the history of occupational health nursing

The history of occupational health nursing has been bedevilled with a vision of nurses who sit in treatment rooms providing first aid and nothing else. This paper provides a preliminary review of some of the literature available in the UK in an attempt to offer an explanatiion concerning the association of occupational health nursing with first aid. The argument suggests that female first aiders were known as nurses prior to 1919 and the legacy of this post-1919, with first aiders inappropriately and probably illegally using the title 'sister', has led to the ambiguity surrounding the role today.