Anna Reynvaan (5 April 1844 – 19 March 1920), was a Dutch nurse and a pioneer within the nursing profession in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Reynvaan was the first professionally trained nurse in the Netherlands. She was born Johanna Paulina Reynvaan.Atria website, ''Why Reynvaan’s work is now extra important'', article dated May 29, 2020
/ref> Her father was a tobacco merchant and her mother died when she was ten years old;Florence Nightingale Institute website, ''Anna Reynvann''
/ref> during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

she expressed an interest in nursing, but was not able to do so at that time as she did not have her father's permission. Reynvaan was educated at the first Nursing School opened in 1878 at the initiative of

Jeltje de Bosch Kemper Jkvr. Jeltje de Bosch Kemper (1836 – 1916) was a Dutch feminist. Life Bosch Kemper was born in Amsterdam on 28 April 1836. She was a member of the Kemper noble family, daughter of (1808-1876) and Maria Aletta Hulshoff (1810-1844) and ...

, who wished to introduce the profession of the educated medical nurse in the Netherlands. Reynvaan graduated as a nurse in 1880 and was, as such, the first professionally trained nurse of her nation. She was employed at the hospital Amsterdam Binnengasthuis, where the caregivers had until then lacked formal education. Alongside the progressive physician Jacob van Deventer, she became known for her work to introduce modern hygiene and method in the hospital care, a work that was to become successful. She also engaged as a pioneer educator in the new nursing education in her country. She was made deputy director of the Buitengasthuis hospital in 1883. She also engaged as a pioneer educator in the new nursing education in her country, teaching the practical component of the new nursing course taught at Buitengasthuis; during this time, Van Deventer’s wife Antontia Stelling became the first person to gain a diploma in psychiatric nursing. She and Kemper later founded the ''Journal for Nursing for the Sick''; Reynvaan also wrote an autobiographical novel, ''Zuster Clara: Schetsen uit het leven eener verpleegster in een stedelijk gasthuis'' ("Sister Clara: Sketches from the life of a nurse in an urban hospital"). In 1891, Reynvaan and Kemper arranged the first conference on nursing, named "The Gathering"; however no women were allowed to deliver speeches at the conference.

Legacy

The

Amsterdam University Medical Center Amsterdam University Medical Center, often shortened to Amsterdam UMC, is a collective of two teaching hospitals in Amsterdam. Formed, in 2018, after the administrative merger of the city's two university medical centers: the Academic Medical Cente ...

runs an annual nursing conference named the Anna Reynvaan Event. The Anna Reynvaan Prize is awarded to nurses who show outstanding work to improve patient care through science. The city of

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...

has a street named after Reynvaan; there is a psychiatric hospital at Anna Reynvaanweg 54.Ambiq Group website, ''Anna Reynvaanweg 54''
/ref>

References

1844 births 1920 deaths 19th-century Dutch people Dutch nurses 19th-century Dutch women educators 20th-century Dutch women educators 20th-century Dutch educators 19th-century Dutch educators Women's firsts {{nurse-bio-stub