About QNIS
QNIS is a unique charity committed to providing high-quality professional development opportunities for Scotland’s community nurses and midwives. We support them in working collaboratively with those they care for to tackle health and care inequalities.
Founded in 1889 with a donation from Queen Victoria, QNIS organised the training of District Nurses across Scotland until the late 1960s. Nurses who qualified from the Institute were known as Queen’s Nurses, who went on to serve communities across Scotland: in cities, rural areas and on the islands.
The contemporary Queen’s Nurse Development Programme awards the title of Queen’s Nurse, and there are currently more than 170 Queen’s Nurses working in Scotland. These dedicated professionals serve in a wide range of community settings including care homes, prisons, GP practices, community mental health teams, schools, health visitors, midwives, and in community learning disability teams.
In addition to our professional development opportunities, QNIS continues to provide friendship, connection, and support for retired Queen’s Nurses who trained before 1969.
Our founders had a vision to promote health, ensuring that those living in poverty could access care, live well, and die with dignity. This mission remains at the heart of everything we do today.
Our purpose
We are passionate about community nursing and midwifery and about the vital role of these professions in delivering high quality health and social care in Scotland. Our founding charter clearly states that our aim was to care for the most disadvantaged, the term at that time being the ‘sick poor’. Today, we continue to increase our efforts to put addressing inequalities at the heart of our work.
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Our impact
QNIS has operated continuously for more than 135 years. As an independent charity with an explicit focus on nurses and midwives working in community and primary care, we occupy a unique position.
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Our history
Our team
