Staff Nurse Elizabeth
Kenny, better known as Sister Kenny.
Born in Warialda, NSW, Kenny began her
career as a bush nurse in rural Australia, where she encountered her
first cases of infantile paralysis or polio, and developed her own
treatment methods by stimulating and re-educating the affected muscles,
rather than immobilizing patients with splints and casts.
During the First World War she
enlisted as a nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS),
serving on hospital ships that brought home the wounded.
In 1917 she was promoted to the rank
of Sister, a title she used for the rest of her life.
Returning to civilian nursing after
the war, Kenny established four clinics to treat polio and cerebral
palsy patients using her own methods. |