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Brief History

Nursing service of St. Stephen's Hospital began taking shape, when an English Lady made it her mission to tend to the sick among the poor women and children in the walled city area over a hundred years ago. Mrs. Priscilla Winter was trained to be a missionary and neither a doctor nor a nurse. But she found fulfillment in her mission by serving God through service to the sick and the poor. Her initiative and concern for the poor attracted other ladies also to carry on the good work. The first trained nurse to join the group was Miss Foltz. Their, effort to start an on-the-job training course in elementary nursing for women resulted attracting only two middle aged women as volunteers. Ignorance and prejudice prevented women from taking up nursing as a career. These women looked after patients in their homes. These home nursing and health teaching was in practice from the very inception of this hospital.

As work progressed, a dispensary was started in a rented house in Chandni Chowk, where Miss Foltz rendered nursing care to the poor patients until she left for England. Feeling the need for a trained midwife, Miss Engel Mann, one of the members of the "Ladies Association", went to England and returned a year later after qualifying as "Trained Midwife, and started training midwives here.

Recognising the service rendered by the "Ladies Association" among the poor and sick women and children of the city, the Delhi Municipal Corporation came forward to help the Association with a grant of Rs. 75 per head per year for training midwives.

Priscilla Winter died in 1881 at the age of 39. As the number of patients at the dispensary increased, the United Society for Propagation of the Gospel and the Cambridge Mission to Delhi, which jointly managed and supported the Dispensary as well as the training programme, felt the need to establish a hospital, to provide indoor treatment to patients who were in need of it. Starting soon after the death of Priscilla Winter, a twenty bedded hospital, named after the first Christian Martyr, St. Stephen, was built in Chandni Chowk and was formally opened on 31st October 1885. Until 1991, when Dr. Jenny Muller, a pioneer in medical work, became the first full time doctor, the hospital, which replaced the dispensary, was managed by nurses with advice and guidance from visiting Doctors. It is therefore natural that students joined the course in a trickle. On successful completion of the two years of course of training, students became eligible for the award of 'B' Grade certificate in General Nursing.

The small hospital became inadequate to meet the increasing health needs of the people of Old Delhi and work began in 1908 on a new 120 bed hospital at its present site at Tis Hazari. The year 1908 also saw the arrival in India of Miss Alice Wilkinson, who became instrumental in building up an efficient nursing service on modern lines in the hospital, during the 40 years of her memorable association with the hospital, first as Mid-wifery Tutor and later as an outstanding Nursing Superintendent. She was a pioneer of nursing service in India and one of the founder members of Trained Nurses Association of India. Miss Annamma Koshy joined as the first Indian Nursing Superintendent in 1964.

Until1952, Nursing Superintendent also carried out duties as tutor for the student nurses. Mrs. M Rajan, who joined as Tutor in 1952, was the first to be appointed to that position. She retired as senior tutor in 1982.

With the spread of education among women, much of the resistance to Nursing as a career wore off and filling the class rooms with student nurses ceased to be a problem. Better educated girls from respectable families are now attracted to Nursing in large numbers. By 1946, training of nurses at St. Stephen's was up-graded, and students who successfully completed the three year course of training became eligible for the award of 'A' Grade diploma in General Nursing. This is followed by a six months course in Mid-wifery, leading to Diploma in Midwifery, awarded by the Punjab Nurses and Midwifery Council to which the school of nursing is affiliated. Since 1987 with the revision of syllabus this course is now of three years duration.

Nursing in St. Stephen's Hospital has come a long way from the conditions that prevailed in the early years of its existence. There has been considerable improvement in the quality of training, service and management. The techniques and methods used are most modern and these are continuously evaluated and updated. Several lectures are organized for trained nurses on different aspects of nursing care to update them with the latest knowledge and techniques. Many of our Nurses are trained in specialisations such as Intensive Coronary Care Nursing, Paediatric Nursing, Operation Room Techniques etc. to improve there skill & usefulness, senior and other staff nurses are deputed to undergo training in different specializations at other institutions such as Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing, A.I.I.M.S, C.M.C Vellore and Lady Reading Health School.

Students from other institutions like College of Nursing, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kanpur and students from Lady Reading Health School are coming to St. Stephen's Hospital for practical experience. For midwifery training, we are getting many nurses from local hospitals as well as from neighbouring states because of the high standard, because of the high standard of training provided at this hospital.

The school of nursing is staffed by a team of well qualified and experienced tutors, who are experts in their respective areas of specialisation. They take keen interest not only in the formal training of students, but also in promoting extra curricular and co-curricular activities among them. It is a tribute to their dedication to their tasks that a high proportion of the students of St.  Stephen's Hospital secure high ranks and distinctions in their Council Examinations.

In the past over a century, the training and practice of nursing has advanced from the most elementary stage and St. Stephen's Hospital now offers nursing education and service comparable to the best available in the country. The aim of the hospital is to raise the standard of nursing education and service in the hospital progressively higher, so as to provide our patients with nursing care of the highest order. Our nursing team consists of 400 qualified nursing staff, 34 nursing supervisors, 2 Assistant Nursing Superintendents, 1 Deputy Nursing Superintendent and 1 Nursing Superintendent.

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