Dr Barbara M S Smith
- Jocelyn Peach
- 8 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Nurse Educator, Quality Manager
Registered Nurse [RGON], BA (Dip.N) Diploma of Education, Massey University, Masters of Health Science, University of Auckland; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Auckland
Barbara Smith was born in Auckland in 1946. She attended Epsom Girls Grammar to complete secondary school. She was interested in science and attended the University of Auckland to complete a Bachelor of Arts in 1969, with a double major in English and history. She started the three-year general nursing programme at Green Lane Hospital, Auckland Hospital Board in 1968. In her first year of her training, she was approved paid leave by the Hospital Board to complete her degree. Later, as National President of the Student Nurses Association, she met with Dr Helen Carpenter in 1971, whose report was used in part to support the transfer of nursing education from the health to the education sector.
After registration, in 1972 Barbara travelled to the United Kingdom. She prepared as a midwife at Southampton General Hospital. While there she represented New Zealand at the First International Conference in the Health Sciences at the Hague, Netherlands. Having registered as a midwife in February 1974 she briefly returned to New Zealand. In 1975 she returned to the United Kingdom to complete an Accident Service Course at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford using the Effie Redwood Scholarship. She then returned to New Zealand to accept a position as nursing supervisor at Green Lane Hospital.
In 1977 Barbara completed a Diploma in Nursing at the School of Advanced Nursing in Wellington. Barbara continued to take an active role in the Students Nurses Association, becoming National President. After registration she took an active role in the Auckland Branch of the Registered (later) Nurses Association, becoming local vice president in 1985.
In 1980 she began her teaching career at the School of Nursing at Green Lane Hospital. She worked with Mrs Margaret Paterson [nee Allan] who had been the principal tutor of the Auckland School of Nursing since 1970. She became charge tutor in 1986 having completed a Diploma of Education at Massey University. She had wide networks in order to coordinate appropriate clinical placements for the nursing students.
In 1987 the School of Nursing Tutors were made aware of the meeting of the Auckland Area Health Board where it was announced that the three-year programme would be closed in 1990. Barbara provided support for the students completing their undergraduate programme. In 1990 a reunion was organised to commemorate the closure of the general nursing programme that included a dinner, afternoon tea and display of memorabilia.
Mrs Paterson, principal tutor, was keen to establish a roll of all registered (and obstetric) nurses who trained at the School of Nursing. It took Barbara Smith four years to achieve this collation of 8800 names. Records had been managed from 1947, but twenty diverse sources were used to trace the names to 1883 [when Miss Crisp had established the first training programme at Auckland Hospital]. In 1990, Barbara Smith was also entrusted with assembling the School of Nursing archive that was deposited with National Archives. A 109-year tradition of nursing had ended in New Zealand.
Following the closure of the School of Nursing, three tutors, Margaret Brown, Diana Masters, Barbara Smith, all involved with the school, felt that the closure of the School of Nursing should not go unremembered. Together they wrote a history of the school covering the period from 1883-1990. The publication included the names of nurses who had graduated as registered nurses from the three-year general and obstetric nursing programme. The book Nurses of Auckland: the history of the general nursing programme in the Auckland School of Nursing was published in 1994. Self-funded, the book was well received.
For the following twenty-one years, Barbara worked as Quality Manager in residential care facilities. She completed her Master of Health Science in June 2005 titled ‘Quality of residential care for older people: Does education for healthcare assistants make a difference?’. The work focused on how education and good governance can improve the quality of care given by health care assistants to older, dependent people. In 2012 she gained a Doctorate in Philosophy using her experience of working with war veterans. titled ‘Ordinary men: extraordinary times. An exploration of the impact of combat experience on World War Two Royal New Zealand Air Force aircrew.’ The work focused on the impact of war across the life course from the perspectives of the veterans, their spouse/ partner, siblings, children and grandchildren.
From 2012 to 2022 Barbara has worked as an Honorary Fellow/ casual lecturer at the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland, involved in post graduate papers.
Thinking of her professional life, she has never regretted her choice of nursing as a career, however she believes that there should be a balance between the theoretical and practical aspects of nursing education, as it is reflecting on experience that we learn [Dewey 1936]. Kai Tiaki, the nursing magazine published a letter that Barbara wrote, stating that nursing is an art, a well-practised skill based on sound theoretical knowledge, and the importance of recognising this.
Links
Brown, M, Masters, D, Smith, B. (1994). Nurses of Auckland. The History of the General Nursing Programme in the Auckland School of Nursing. ISBN 0-473-02827-1
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