The ‘Manchester scheme’: a study of the Diploma in Community Nursing, the first pre‐registration nursing programme in a British university

Abstract

The Diploma in Community Nursing at the University of Manchester began in 1959, after a long period of planning and negotiation. It was the earliest pre-registration nursing education programme in a British university. The paper reports on a historical study which examined its foundation and development. The history of the 'Manchester Scheme', as it came to be known, is placed into the context of wider reforms and modifications in British nursing education. The methods used for the study were a broad-based literature review, examination of material from the 1950s to the present day, five oral history interviews with some of those who were influential in developing the diploma, and the interpretation of relevant documentary source materials. The Diploma in Community Nursing at the University of Manchester was important and innovative in its time, combining as it did nurse and health visitor training with a university-based education. The paper traces the struggle to establish the course, which was largely due to the efforts of one charismatic individual, Fraser Brockington, Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine. It then goes on to examine the reforms and modifications the programme underwent from 1959 to 1969, as it was developed into the prototype for the 'Bachelor of Nursing Degree'.

Colin Fraser Brockington (1903–2004) and the Revolution in Nurse-Education

“…The drive to bring all nurse education into the university sector gained momentum with the United Kingdom Central Council's 'Project 2000' initiative in the mid-1980s 4 but the wholesale move of nursing into higher education was not complete until 1997. 5 This can be taken as a study of the mismatch between intention and outcome; of the way in which a project launched by one person was transformed by the drives and actions of others into something unintended by its originator. Although Fraser Brockington initially does not appear to have wanted to do more than develop the public health role of the health visitor, he does appear to have been gratified by the way in which his project eventually evolved into something that operated on a much larger scale.…”

“…The drive to bring all nurse education into the university sector gained momentum with the United Kingdom Central Council's ‘Project 2000’ initiative in the mid-1980s 4 but the wholesale move of nursing into higher education was not complete until 1997. 5…”

A context analysis of student training records dating from the 1950/1960s: What were desirable and undesirable student nurse characteristics?

“…As major part of the healthcare workforce student nurse educational needs were of secondary consideration to the staffing needs of the hospital (Bradshaw, 1989). A few experimental undergraduate programmes had been started in places such as Edinburgh and Manchester Universities (Brooks, 2011;Hallett, 2005) in the 1950/1960s. However, it was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s with the advent of Project 2000 style programmes in the UK that it became the norm to have nurse education sited in higher education settings (Elkan and Robinson, 1995).…”