When Granny was a Nurse My Granny used to be a State Registered Nurse and my Mum and my Auntie followed her. I am thinking of it as a possible career so I decided to find out something about it past and present. When you finished school you needed your School Leaving Certificate. You had to spend three years training in the hospital and doing exams in nursing school. After a year and a half you had to do a preliminary exam which had to be passed before you went into second year training. A student nurse was paid approximately £2-12s-6d a week. You had to work 42 hours a week and you either worked 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a half hour dinner break and a ten minute tea break or else from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with three hours off in the afternoon. The nurses had to wear a blue dress, white starched apron, white belt, white starched hat and black shoes. You had to wear a clean apron every day. The uniforms were laundered by the hospital.There were no cleaners on the wards to do the washing and cleaning like there are today. The nurses washed, cleaned and dusted the wards as well as looking after the patients. The wards were dull with very few comforts. There were no television sets for the patients to watch or radios for them to listen to. There were no pictures or paintings to decorate the walls. There were no nice bright curtains to draw around the beds for privacy. There was only a screen which folded up and was moved around from bed to bed when the patients needed to be examined by the doctors. The major illnesses treated in the hospital were rheumatic fever and tuberculosis. There were often burns treated due to bad home safety. These illnesses are now largely unheard of due to better living conditions and better health care. However there are more people with heart disease due to their lifestyle. There was a medical ward, a surgical ward, an ear, nose and throat ward, a busy casualty department, an outpatients department and the Clarke Clinic which treated private patients. There was only basic theatre equipment and a basic X-ray machine. There was no such thing as scanners. There was no physiotherapy department years ago. Nowadays the patients are helped to regain the use of injured limbs. They are taught how to walk again and shown how to exercise by themselves. Today many more people are helped to live as normal a life as possible after an accident or illness whereas long ago people were bed-ridden and usually forgotten about once they left hospital. When I become a nurse I am glad that I will only have to look after the patients and not have to clean and dust and do all the hard work Sarah-Jane Coleman - P7 - Dunamuggy Primary School Another Story Competition Index Return to Main Page