Royal District Nursing Service driving home-care tradition started in 1894 from the Adelaide suburb of Bowden
Carrying on the home nursing care tradition. Top left: Sister Nellie Saint, first district nurse sent to Wallaroo Mines in about 1910. Bottom left: A district nurse at Murray Bridge in the 1950s.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Royal District Nursing Service of South Australia
The Royal District Nursing Service of South Australia carried into the 21st Century the tradition started by District Trained Nursing Society in 1894 after 12 months work by a trained nurse in the Adelaide suburb of Bowden.
This experiment, financed by the philanthropic Barr Smith and EIder families, convinced founders Dr. Allan Campbell, the Rev. B.C. Stephenson and Nightingale nurse Matron Edith Noble of demand for a district nursing service.
The financial viability of such a venture had been shown by the Pirie Street Nursing Sisters' Association, organised by the inner-Adelaide-city Pirie Street Wesleyan Methodist Church but supported by public donations. Its founder, the Rev. Joseph Berry, was on the first district nursing committee, although his Pirie Street Nursing Sisters' Association remained independent until 1898.
In 1937, the District Trained Nursing Society became the District and Bush Nursing Society and in 1965 the “royal” prefix was granted, in 1973 “Bush” removed, and “Service” substituted in 1993.
The Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS), as South Australia's sole district nursing service, operated with the aid of local committees and more 70 branches, throughout the state, including several cottage hospitals. The society’s objects have remained to give skilled nursing care to the sick and disabled in their own homes, and to help education and field experience for nursing, medical and paramedical personnel in home nursing care.
From 1956, the society was supported by state and federal government grants but the organisation has maintained community funding of about 20%. RDNS grew to employ more than 200 full-time equivalent registered nursing staff with an extra100 registered casual nurses. In 1983-84, its nursing staff visited 15,000 patients making 427,000 visits and travelled 2,150,000 kilometres.
In 2011, the organisation merged with the Australia-wide Silver Chain but kept the South Australian name, and was based in the Adelaide suburb of Keswick. In 2021, its nurses covered the local government areas of Adelaide, Adelaide Hills, Burnside, Campbelltown, Charles Sturt, Gawler, Holdfast Bay, Marion, Mitcham, Mount Barker, Murray Bridge, Norwood Payneham St Peters, Onkaparinga, Playford, Port Adelaide Enfield, Prospect, Salisbury, Tea Tree Gully, Unley, Walkerville and West Torrens.
