Moved to Care Exhibition Launch

The Royal College of Nursing is launching a new exhibition, Moved to Care, on Thursday 22 October at their Scotland Headquarters on South Oswald Road. It's a look at the history of migration in nursing, and the launch is a hybrid event, so you can be there in person or follow along online.

The exhibition itself traces the stories of nurses who have moved to care from the 19th century to the present day. It makes the point that migration has long been at the heart of the profession: well before the NHS, Nightingale nurses travelled across the globe, and several RCN founders worked as military nurses in South Africa and beyond, with the British Empire and its legacy at the centre of those movements. It also brings the numbers into focus, noting that around a quarter of the 794,000 registered nurses registered in the UK are nationals of other countries.

The launch evening is built around talks and a screening. Professor Pam Smith, an RCN Fellow, chairs the session. Dr Radha Adhikari, a lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland, speaks on the contemporary international migration of Nepali nurses, while Dr Claire Chatterton, a visiting professor at the Universities of Chichester and Chester and a fellow of both the RCN and the Royal Historical Society, looks at the history of nursing migration. There's also a screening of Khichdi, a short film commissioned by the BFI for the NHS' 75th anniversary that follows four first-generation Indian women who have worked for the NHS since the early 2000s, with Tia Shah, learning manager at the Migration Museum, speaking about the museum's collaboration with the RCN.

If you can't make the launch, the exhibition stays open to visitors Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm, and is also available online. The launch runs from 17:30 to 20:30 on Thursday 22 October at the RCN Scotland Headquarters, 42 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh EH9 2HH; it's free and open to all.