Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I started my training as a midwife in St Lucia. Then I saw an advertisement saying that they were desperate in London to have qualified persons to help out, so I came here in 1958, when I was 20, and trained for three years at Mount Vernon hospital in Northwood.
As a trainee in St Lucia, there were a lot of restrictions. You had to jump out the window to see your boyfriend, that sort of stuff. Things were strict over here, too: we weren’t allowed to go to parties, so we had to leave one window open and jump out. I have no idea what would have happened if we got caught – we were too well organised for that.
On the ward, there was no time for tittle-tattle. Our patients were very well looked after, with bedside nursing, and we carried out our duties efficiently. There were no disposable utensils, we had to wash bedpans in the sluice. We couldn’t wear uniforms outdoors because it might cause infection. Visitors were not allowed to bring food to their relatives in hospital. There was no shortage of nurses and patients never had to wait on trolleys to occupy a bed.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/25/life-as-an-nhs-nurse-in-the-1950s
As a trainee in St Lucia, there were a lot of restrictions. You had to jump out the window to see your boyfriend, that sort of stuff. Things were strict over here, too: we weren’t allowed to go to parties, so we had to leave one window open and jump out. I have no idea what would have happened if we got caught – we were too well organised for that.
On the ward, there was no time for tittle-tattle. Our patients were very well looked after, with bedside nursing, and we carried out our duties efficiently. There were no disposable utensils, we had to wash bedpans in the sluice. We couldn’t wear uniforms outdoors because it might cause infection. Visitors were not allowed to bring food to their relatives in hospital. There was no shortage of nurses and patients never had to wait on trolleys to occupy a bed.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/25/life-as-an-nhs-nurse-in-the-1950s
