When Sister Kenny came to RNSH: a clinical trial like no other By Catherine Storey, Honorary Associate Professor from the Northern Clinical School and Honorary Archivist Royal North Shore Hospital Possibly one of the most unusual clinical trials ever undertaken at Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) involved an ex-Prime Minister, an unqualified ‘bush nurse’, orthopaedic surgeons and reports tabled in the NSW Parliament.
The philosophy of the clinic, as viewed by the Federal Health Minister in 1935, aligned with the Labour Party’s policy of expanding services for the general public. Hughes was keen to ensure that a clinic be established in NSW, and where better than in his own electorate of North Sydney? By June 1935, Hughes directed the Board of Directors of RNSH to “house a clinic which would be under the direction of Sister Kenny”. The Honorary Medical Staff, in particular the orthopaedic surgeons, were not impressed.
In early 1935, William “Billie” Hughes, then the Federal Minister of Health – who had been Prime Minister during World War I – travelled to Brisbane to witness the famous “Sister Kenny Clinic” first-hand. Sister Elizabeth Kenny, then aged 56, was already well known in Australia, Great Britain and the United States for her unconventional treatment of poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis). Although referred to as ‘Sister’, there is no documented evidence of her having any formal nursing qualifications. Yet, in 1911, she had established herself as a “bush nurse” serving the outback communities of NSW and Queensland and she joined the Army Nursing Service in 1915, serving until 1919. While nursing in the bush, Sister Kenny encountered many young children with acute poliomyelitis, one of the most feared childhood diseases. When orthodox practitioners managed these children with immobilisation, plaster casts and callipers, Sister Kenny advocated for heat, massage and movement. By 1933, she had established a large clinic and training school in Brisbane. The public was fully supportive, and each newspaper article in which the medical orthodoxy denounced her methods was matched by stories of her successes. The public revered her.
Sister Elizabeth Kenny (left)
22 Tomorrow’s medicine today
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