RANA memories - celebrating 50 years in the nursing profession

摘要

Ijoined my first practice straight from school on 29 May 1970 at the tender age of 15, and on the princely wage of E6 and 10 shillings (E6.50) a week, with two weeks' holiday a year.I sometimes wonder how I managed to pass the interview stage as, even by the standards of the late 1960s, I was extremely young, shy and innocent, and had no experience with animals.The first day I was asked to go into the kennels and check if the next patient on the operating list was a dog or a bitch. I stood there looking at the dog for quite a while with absolutely no idea how to tell the difference - eventually the vet came inand pushed me out the way in exasperation.That same vet made my life a misery for the whole of my training period - the only consolation I had was that it wasn't personal. He delighted in reducing all the nurses to tears at any and every opportunity. When he lost his temper, which was often - particularly in the operating theatre - he had a habit of hurling the scalpel at the assisting nurse opposite.