Often overlooked in the grand narratives of medical history, the nurse has been both a silent witness and active agent in the evolution of healthcare. From medieval monastic infirmaries to the battlefields of Crimea, from Victorian asylums to the wards of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of the nurse has shifted, expanded, and been fiercely contested.
This lecture traces the complex and often contradictory history of nursing. We will explore how nurses have been seen as angels, servants, moral guardians, activists, and professionals—sometimes all at once. Along the way, we’ll meet figures such as Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, but also the countless anonymous nurses whose care, courage, and labor shaped the survival of patients and the reputation of hospitals.
We will also examine how the nurse’s role reflects larger social anxieties about class, gender, and power, and how nursing continues to challenge and redefine the boundaries of medicine, compassion, and advocacy today. Join us for a journey into the heart—and the hard realities—of nursing through the ages.
Please, note:
- the total duration of the event is 1 hour ( ~ 50mins lecture and 10mins Q&A)
- the talk doesn’t require any prior training and anyone can join
- This event will be recorded: the video will be available in 3-5 days after the talk
- Guests can access all videos at a small fee; videos for members are free of charge
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SPEAKER – LENA HEIDE-BRENNAND
Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer who holds a master’s degree in language, culture, and literature. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and focus has always been topics that others consider strange, eccentric, and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students and audience often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching and lecturing, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She has worked as a curator and lecturer for the famous London based Last Tuesday Society and Viktor Wynd Museum for Fine Art and Unnatural History since 2021 and holds the all-time record in the museum’s history with more than 21000 interests on her online lecture on Erotic Folktales in 2022. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience.
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