Background
Born in Vienna, Annie Therese Altschul was five years old when her father was killed in a railway accident.
Born in Vienna, Annie Therese Altschul was five years old when her father was killed in a railway accident.
She was studying mathematics at the University of Vienna when she and her family fled the Anschluss in 1938, winding up in London. She trained as a nurse and midwife at Epsom County Hospital. In 1946 Altschul became a staff nurse at the Maudsley Hospital, a psychiatric centre.
In 1964 Altschul left Maudsley to be a lecturer in the Department of Nursing Studies at Edinburgh University.
Altschul"s Master of Science thesis, entitled "Measurement of patient-nurse interaction in relation to in-patient psychiatric treatment", was supervised by Elsie Stephenson in 1967. In 1972 Altschul wrote Patient-Nurse Interaction.
In 1976 she became Professor of Nursing Studies, and remained at Edinburgh University until her retirement in 1983. Professor Altschul observed the effects when patients were moved to smaller accommodations during the redecoration of the large wards at Dingleton mental hospital in the Scottish Borders.
She observed that the closer interaction between nurses and patients resulted in less hyperactivity and less need for certain types of medications.
Mental Health Commission in Scotland
The Scottish General Nursing Council
Royal College of Nursing
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1983. She established the Professor Annie Altschul Publication Prize.
The Socialist Medical Association.
