Exhibitions in Scotland
Discover the fascinating history of nursing support work and celebrate the contribution that nursing support workers continue to make today.
From Victorian asylums and wartime volunteers to nursing assistants and care workers today, this exhibition uncovers the long history and diversity of nursing support work.
Exhibits include a handmade magazine created by a young Agatha Christie when she was a volunteer nurse in the First World War, on loan from the . Never previously displayed, until this RCN exhibition in London and now in Edinburgh, the magazine gives a vivid insight into the resilience and camaraderie of volunteer nurses at a time of national emergency.
The exhibition shines a light on the personal stories of nursing support workers today, celebrating the contribution they continue to make – in hospitals, care homes, clinics and communities.
Other objects on display include items from Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Chester Riverside Museum, the Christie Archive Trust, Glenside Museum, the Red Cross Museum and Archives, and Barts Health NHS Trust Archives.
Shining a Light was put together in close collaboration with a group of RCN member volunteers who are support workers or work closely with support workers, and the RCN Nursing Support Worker Committee.
If visiting in person, the exhibition is open Monday to Thursday from 10am until 4pm.
If you can't visit the exhibition in person, check out the online exhibition.
The venue is wheelchair accessible. If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact us on scotland.library@rcn.org.uk or 0131 662 6163/4.
Upcoming events:
06 February 2025
Hidden Voices
An interactive event for Nursing Support Workers from all settings to share stories and have your voice heard.
29 Apr 2025
Stories from Hospitals Back Home during the First World War
Join our panel of speakers for an evening of talks exploring how in the First World War, volunteers provided nurses with vital support as they cared for sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals back home.
Watch our exhibition launch event
Our previous exhibition and events
Find out about the past, present and future of children and young people's nursing.
Children arenֱt just ֱsmall adultsֱ. They have different health and care needs, which change as they grow and develop.
This exhibition explored the history of children and young peopleֱs nursing ֱ from the first childrenֱs hospitals in the 1800s to the development of family-centred care.
Nursing for young people has often been ahead of the curve and influenced adult care. Yet this has not always been acknowledged, and childrenֱs nurses have had to fight for recognition of their specialist role. This exhibition showed that by recognising this past and by listening to and valuing young peopleֱs voices, we can better prepare for our future.
The exhibition was co-created with ֱ members, many of whom work in children and young peopleֱs nursing or have in the past. The volunteer team was involved in every stage of the exhibition from research, to writing exhibition panels, to exhibition design.
Objects on display included items from Bethlem Museum of the Mind, the Foundling Museum, the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, Southwark Heritage Centre, and objects and stories loaned by nurses past and present.
The exhibition also included artwork by pupils at St. Columbaֱs Primary School in Annan, Dumfries & Galloway, Trinity School in Carlisle, Eday Community School on the Island of Eday in Orkney and Westray Junior High School on the island of Westray, Orkney
Exhibition Launch Event
Watch out launch event for this exhibition with speakers including:
- Sue Ward, former Group Deputy Chief Nurse and part of the group of volunteers who curated this RCN Library and Archivesֱ History of Children and Young Peopleֱs nursing exhibition
- Finalists in the Children's Nursing & Midwifery Award at the 2022 RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards, the Capella Team. A childrenֱs community nursing team in NHS Dumfries and Galloway explore how children and their families living within a remote and rural area receive the most appropriate and peaceful end of life care in the absence of a specialist palliative care team
- Brenda Kirk, Highly Commended Finalist for the Children's Nursing & Midwifery Award at last yearֱs RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards who explores how community childrenֱs nursing care for children with a disability enables improvements in health outcomes.
Celebrating Children and Young People's Nursing
Hear from three of the finalists from our recent RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards 2024, as they provide an insight into the work that led to their nomination and recognition.
In Conversation with Nursing Pioneers: What can we do to stem nursing's recruitment and retention crisis?
In Conversation with Nursing Pioneers: The recruitment and retention crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the personal and professional challenges that nursing and healthcare professionals face every day. The public looked to them as masked heroes but many felt they were just doing their job.
Yet this pandemic, like others before it, exposed the risks taken by nursing professionals at work. Over 850 healthcare workers are thought to have died after contracting COVID-19 in 2020. The pandemic was not equal, impacting on some staff more than others, particularly those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The risk of infection occurred everywhere that nursing took place: whether in the community, in care homes, in mental health or in maternity wards.
This exhibition looked behind the masks, to explore the thoughts, feelings and experiences of nursing staff during COVID-19 and past pandemics.
30 Nov 2023 - 16 May 2024
Nursing in COVID-19 - RCN Scotland member stories
Exhibition launch: UNMASKED: Real Stories of Nursing in COVID-19
Watch videos of our previous exhibition events:
Exhibition launch event
A conversation with Learning Disability Nurses
Celebrating Learning Disability Nursing
Page last updated - 17/12/2024