Working for herself: case study of a private duty nurse, 1965-1974

Private duty nursing is not well researched in Australian history of nursing literature. While it would appear private duty nursing formed the main avenue of employment for trained nurses during the first part of the twentieth century, this type of nursing seems to have disappeared by the mid 1970s. This paper used a case study obtained from an oral history project to examine possible factors contributing to the phasing out of private duty nursing. It concluded there were two main influential issues: an increase in the use of medical technology and the impact this had on nursing practice; and an increase in the financial value placed on nursing which saw nursing wages increase dramatically from 1970.