Alice Tibbits
{{Short description|Australian nurse (1854–1932)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Alice Tibbits (1854–1932) was a South Australian nursing pioneer who was matron and owner of the Private Hospital, Wakefield Street in the 1880s. She was one of the first to train nurses in Australia and was known as the "Florence Nightingale of South Australia".
Early life and education
Alice Tibbits was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England in 1854. She and her friend Kate Hill were influenced by Anglican community nurse Sister Dora (Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison) in Staffordshire. The two friends emigrated to South Australia in 1879{{Citation |last=Gibberd |first=Joyce |title=Kate Hill (1859–1933) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hill-kate-6670 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-11-01 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}} and began nursing at the newly opened Adelaide Children's Hospital.{{cite web|url=https://adelaideaz.com/articles/alice-tibbits-and-kate-hill-create-first-private-nurse-training-hospital-in-wakefield-street--adelaide--from-1883-|title=Alice Tibbitt and Kate Hill create first private nurse training hospital in Wakefield Street, Adelaide, from 1888|publisher=Adelaide A-Z}}{{cite book|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hill-kate-6670|title=Hill, Kate (1859-1933|publisher=Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Joyce|last=Gibberd|date=1983}} Tibbits was the first person to receive a certificate of training from the hospital in 1881.{{cite journal|title=They also signed the petition: nursing pioneers of the 1890s|first=Joan|last=Durdin|journal= Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia|pages=113–121|volume=22|year=1994}} The training included care of sick children, maternity nursing, and secondment to the lying-in wards of the Destitute Asylum. Upon completion of the course, Tibbits went to London at her own expense to complete a further two years as a probationer at the London Hospital and six months training in midwifery at the Endell Street Nursing Home.
Tibbits was a member of the Baptist church.{{cite journal|url=http://www.baptistresearch.org.nz/uploads/6/2/0/4/6204774/pacific_journal_5-2_october_09.pdf|title='A Holy Liberty in the Lord'? South Australian Baptists and Female Gender Roles, circa 1870 to 1940|journal=Pacific Journal of Baptist Research|volume=5|number=2|date=October 2009|page=3962|first=John|last=Walker|access-date=20 August 2021|archive-date=4 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804192051/http://www.baptistresearch.org.nz/uploads/6/2/0/4/6204774/pacific_journal_5-2_october_09.pdf|url-status=dead}}
Career
Tibbits returned to South Australia in 1884 and worked for William Gardner, who requested that she become matron of the Private Hospital, Wakefield Street.{{cite book|title=Nursing in South Australia: First Hundred Years 1837-1937| publisher= South Australian Trained Nurses’ Centenary Committee| location=Adelaide|date= February 1938}} She purchased the hospital in 1888 and doubled its bed capacity to 30. In 1902, she acquired two cottages in Ifould Street,{{cite journal| title=Short history of PHWS (Private Hospital, Wakefield Street) First= E. E.| last=Lyon| journal=The Australasian Nurses Journal|date= May 1977| volume= 6| issue=10| page=18| issn=0301-018X}} as well as a two-storey house on Wakefield Street, which she named "Hatherton" after her home in Staffordshire. She was the first woman in Adelaide to train nurses.
Tibbits was a suffragist. She and eight of her trained nurses signed the petition which led to the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894, giving South Australian women the right to vote and to stand for parliament.{{cite book|page=103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4cVntiyemAC|title=In Her Own Name: A History of Women in South Australia from 1836|publisher=Wakefield Press|year=1994|first=Helen|last=Jones|isbn = 9781862543218}}
In 1902, Hill joined her as a partner and owner of the Wakefield Street Hospital. Tibbits acquired further nearby properties in 1905.{{cite web|url=https://d31atr86jnqrq2.cloudfront.net/docs/info-local-heritage-places-ada-east.pdf?mtime=20190521135449&focal=none|title=City of Adelaide Heritage Survey (2008)}} Under her leadership, it became the first training hospital for nurses in the colony, and later state, of South Australia. Tibbits herself worked ten-to-twelve hour days. She retired in 1903 and sold the goodwill of the hospital to Hill. In 1905, Tibbits advocated for,{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56329097?searchTerm=Alice%20Tibbits|title=Nursing Association|first=Alice|last=Tibbits|date=30 March 1905|access-date=20 August 2021|work=The Register}}{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56330822?searchTerm=Alice%20Tibbits|first=Alice|last=Tibbits|title=Nurses' Association|date=3 April 1905|access-date=20 August 2021|work=The Register}} and was alongside Hill involved in founding, the South Australian branch of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association at a meeting chaired by suffragist Rosetta Jane Birks. Tibbits served as a member of the executive for many years.
Death and legacy
Tibbits lived for twenty years in a home called "Hatherton" on 2.75 acres at Mount Lofty,{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59309960?searchTerm=Alice%20Tibbits|title=Real Estate News|date=11 June 1932|access-date=20 August 2021|work=The Mail|page=6}} where she died on 2 February 1932 after a long illness.{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/73847987?searchTerm=Alice%20Tibbits|title=Pioneer Nurse Dies|work=The Advertiser|date=3 February 1932|access-date=20 August 2021|page=11}}
Tibbits left £1,000 in her will to the Walsall Hospital for a bed in memory of her grandfather.{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/90914609|title=Probate has been granted|date=24 March 1932|work=Chronicle|page=37|access-date=20 August 2021}} Newspapers at the time said she was known as the "Florence Nightingale of South Australia".
In November 1938, a brass commemorative plaque was erected in her memory in the hospital's reception area,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74405840 |title=Memorial Tablet At Hospital |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=10 November 1938 |access-date=16 May 2021 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} after nurses trained by her suggested the need to "perpetuate her memory."{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131898239?searchTerm=Alice%20Tibbits|title=Nurses' Meet|work=News (Adelaide SA)|date=13 October 1937|access-date=20 August 2021|page=6}}{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131897065?searchTerm=Alice%20Tibbits|title=Honoring Memory of Nurse|date=14 October 1937|access-date=20 August 2021|work=News (Adelaide SA)|page=21}}