Records relating to examinations of the General Nursing Council for England and Wales

Records relating to the General Nursing Council for England and Wales' responsibility for setting, moderating and marking nursing examinations.

Comprises:

• correspondence and papers, DT 22
• assessment question papers, DT 23
• assessment candidates lists, DT 24
• assessment pass lists, DT 25
• final, intermediate and preliminary examination papers, DT 26
• preliminary and intermediate examinations results list, DT 27
• final examination pass and fail lists, DT 28
• final examination multiple choice questions, DT 29
• papers of final examination moderating committee, DT 30
• papers of test educational examination, DT 31
• examination statistics, DT 32

Topics

Nursing

Initially, to enter the Final Examination for State Registered Nurse (SRN), candidates were required to have passed the Preliminary Examination, completed the prescribed course of training and reached the age of 21 years. Each candidate was required to pass all parts of the examination before registration. The first Preliminary and Final Examinations were held in July 1924 and June 1925 respectively. An Intermediate Examination was introduced in 1958 but it lasted only until 1972 when the Preliminary Examination was also discontinued.

In June 1935 the Minister of Health approved a scheme that no candidate could enter a training school as a student to train for the State Examination who did not possess the General School Certificate or its equivalent, unless such a candidate had passed or passed within a trial period a test examination in general education set by the General Nursing Council. The required subjects were general knowledge, English and arithmetic. The entrance fee was five shillings. The examination was abandoned in 1939 for the duration of the war, the last one was held in July 1939. In 1945 the Council tried to re-establish the test examination, but the Minister of Health felt that its reintroduction would seriously affect recruitment. The Council did not again achieve an educational level of entry until 1962.

The Nurses Act 1949 extended the responsibilities of the General Nursing Council to the training and enrolment of Assistant Nurses, re-designated State Enrolled Nurses (SEN) by the Nurses (Amendment) Act 1961. Trainees for whom no educational entry was required were designated Pupil Nurses and were subject to assessment before enrolment.