Margaret Cooper

Margaret Jean Drummond Cooper (23 March 1922 – 15 September 2013) was an English nurse and nurse-tutor. She developed a view that theoretical knowledge should be applied to practical training, and wanted to improve the education of nurses and their competence. Cooper held tutoring positions at Northampton General Hospital and Addenbrooke's Hospital and later served as the Queen Elizabeth School of Nursing's principal.

Biography

Early life Cooper was born on 23 March 1922. She was the oldest daughter of Canon Bernard and Jean Cooper, and was raised in Oadby. Cooper had two sisters. She was educated at the School of St Mary and St Ann (now called Abbots Bromley School).

Career Cooper completed her nurse training at Leicester Royal Infirmary, where she was awarded a gold medal for being the hospital's best student. Cooper was also president of the Guild of St Barnabas for Nurses, which provided nurses with spiritual support.

Later life and death She retired to Saffron Walden, Essex. Cooper completed a degree with the Open University, and volunteered with a bereavement counselling charity called Cruse. In 1998, she wrote a paper called The Best and Worst of Care during Recovery from a Stroke for the Royal Commission for the Long-term Care of the Elderly. After her health deteriorated and she lost her sight, she spent her final years in a nursing home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Cooper died on 15 September 2013.