Lady Dudley’s district nursing scheme and the congested districts board, 1903–1923

This chapter outlines the attempts the Lady Dudley scheme made in tandem with the Congested Districts Board (CDB) to organize domiciliary medical care and to improve public health and sanitation in the West of Ireland from 1903 to 1923.1 In the absence of egodocuments from offi cials or the native population, this chapter relies heavily on the scheme’s and CDB’s annual reports.2 Although repetitious in nature, both sources—observations by nurses and CDB offi cials—provide us with an indication of medical, cultural, social, and economic circumstances in the West during this timeframe. The Dudley scheme’s annual reports are of particular use because they incorporate detailed case notes and some interesting photographs of nurses interacting with patients.3 This essay also attempts to tease out the relationship between medical care, the nurses, and the people.4 Poverty and associated problems such as malnutrition and poor living conditions were a great challenge to practitioners of modern medicine during the period under review.