A fancy word for a nurses utility belt which seemed to include a tool to handle any emergency.
The word comes from the French term chatelaine meaning the mistress of the chateau. She would have worn a belt for her keys which is where the present term comes from.
In the 19th century, when nursing was becoming an acknowledged career for women, nurses began to adopt a distinctive uniform. Photographs show nurses in uniform wearing a chatelaine attached to their belts. The early chatelaines would have scissors, pins, dressings hanging from them and could cause injuries given that the scissor tips would be uncapped and could strike the nurse as she walked.
This chatelaine belonged to Florence Jane Elizabeth Way (known as Bessie Way). Charge Nurse Way graduated at the Adelaide Hospital in 1895. Made of soft brown leather, the triangular pouches contained scissors, forceps, thermometer, pencil, and a notebook, but could accommodate other instruments needed from time to time as the nurse went about her duties.
Chatelaines were often given as gifts and souvenirs to those in the nursing field including one gifted to Matron Mary E Fitzgerald of the Port Augusta Hospital for the Home of the Aged Trained Nurses, 14th February 1958. The items were collected in France by an Australian Soldier named Kelly, in 1920. It consists of four silver coloured metal items attached to a metal chain. The items are described as: a lamp, a brandy flask, a note book & pencil and a flint box. According to the associated framed letter
it is supposed to be an emblem glorifying Florence Nightingale and came into existence following the Crimean War.”
Times have evolved and they are no longer used in modern nursing. Can you imagine how cumbersome and noisy it would have been having to go about your duties treating patients with that jangling around your waist. With much of the nurses medical equipment now single use and disposable there is very little need for anything resembling a chatelaine.
Written by Kellie Branson CALHN Health Museum