Lisbeth HockeyOBEFRCN (17 October 1918 – 16 June 2004) was an Austrian-born British nurse and researcher. She was the first director of the Nursing Research Unit in Edinburgh. She was awarded a PhD for research in nursing, one of the first people to do so.
Early life
Lisbeth Hochsinger was born on 17 October 1918 in Graz, Austria.[1] In 1936 she began studying medicine at the University of Graz where she completed three years of the course before being sent away from the threatening political situation in Hitler's Germany.[2][3] She was unaware that her family had some Jewish ancestry, but later both her parents were taken to concentration camps where they died.[4][5] With assistance from the Society of Friends, Hochsinger arrived in England in 1938 and went to Devon to stay with a brigadier and his wife.[1][4] She first worked as a governess for their children and learned sufficient English to start nursing training in London.[5]
Nursing career
In 1939 she was accepted to do her general nurse training at The London Hospital.[6] She left the London Hospital on account of a new rule that stopped non-British subjects from nursing people who could be prisoners of war.[4] She was allowed to train at Coppetts Wood Hospital in Muswell Hill and she qualified as a fever nurse in 1943.[4][7] She then went to the Peace Memorial Hospital in Watford, completing her general nursing training in 1945.[6] She changed her name to Hockey in 1949.[8] She went to the North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton and studied for her Midwifery Part 1.[9] For the second part of her midwifery training she chose to go to Essex where she would spend time in the district.[4] In 1950 she gained a health visitor qualification from Battersea Polytechnic.[10]
In October 1971, Hockey was appointed the first director of the Nursing Research Unit in Edinburgh.[12] It was the first nursing research unit at a British University.[5] She completed a PhD in 1979, an uncommon achievement.[13] Her PhD was awarded by City University, London and although her thesis was not published, A Study of District Nursing: the development and progression of a long term research programme provided an early description of the responsibilities involved.[14]: 3
Later life
Although retired, she remained active in the nursing world.[13] The last year of her life was spent in a nursing home.[15] She died in Edinburgh on 16 June 2004.[1]
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) made her a fellow in 1980.[3] She was made an honorary fellow by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in 1982, the first nurse to be honoured this way.[18] It would be more than twenty years before another nurse was given this same honour.[19] She was proud of this honour, having always intended to care for the whole person.[3][4] In 1987 she was made an Honorary Member of the Austrian Nursing Association.[20]
In 2000 she received the Gold Medal of Honour from the Queen's Nursing Institute, only the fourth person to receive this honour.[21]
She was bestowed with honorary degrees from the University of Alberta in 1980,[22] University of Uppsala in 1985[23] and the Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh in 1995.[5]
^Goodman, Claire (27 September 2013). "Dr Lisbeth Hockey 1918–2004 'A pioneer of nursing research'". British Journal of Community Nursing. 9 (8): 331. doi:10.12968/bjcn.2004.9.8.15354. PMID15365471.
