Transcript Detail
| Transcript Title | Weeks, Maureen (O2011.1) |
| Interviewee | Maureen Weeks |
| Interviewer | Written text |
| Date | 01/01/2011 |
| Transcriber by | Written text |
Transcript
Hertford Oral History Group
Recording no: O2011.1
Interviewee: Maureen Weeks
Date written: 2011
NOTE: This is one of a number of self-recorded personal history transcripts. It is typed directly by the individual and, since it was not conducted by interview, is in a different format to that normally adopted by HOHG
Hertford County Hospital August 1959 - July 1965
Hertford County Hospital, North Road, Hertford was the local hospital serving Hertford, Ware Hoddesdon and the surrounding villages. It was opened as a General Infirmary in 1833. But there had been many additions over the years.
When I enrolled as a Nursing Cadet in 1959 it consisted of seven wards and various departments. The wards were; Sebright - Women’s Medical & Children; Queens – Female Surgical, Accident & Gynaecology; Princes - Male Medical & Accident; Kings – Male Surgical. There was also a Maternity Ward, Private Ward and Isolation Ward. In the grounds were various single storey buildings housing Physiotherapy, Pathology, Pharmacy, Medical Records, Administration, Sewing Room, Almoner (Social Worker), Sterilising Unit and the Mortuary. Added to this there was an Operating Theatre, X-ray Department and Kitchen.
Accommodation for nurses was also provided. Partly in a wing off the main hospital building, for the first year nurses. But also in a single storey building, for third year and staff nurses, and a two storey house for second year nurses. Opposite the hospital was a large three storey house which was used by nurses on night duty. Also on North Road nearer the town was a house converted into flats for some of the Sisters. Matron had a small house opposite the hospital which had originally been part of Sele Mill.
The Nurses Training School was built on the site of an old Nursery, but this has since been demolished and replaced with houses. The Cadet Nursing Scheme was set up to give girls interested in Nursing as a career, an insight into what was involved. Although by the time my training was completed the Scheme was being phased out.
I was enrolled as a Cadet in August 1959 after finishing my general education. The course was designed to continue our education at the Further Education College, whilst also learning what was involved in the workings of the various departments of the hospital. We were not allowed to work on the wards themselves until we were seventeen. We worked five days a week, one day and later two were spent at College, studying English, Maths, Geography and Domestic Science. Why Geography I have no idea. I don’t recall any examinations but presumably reports on our progress or lack of it were sent to the Matron, Miss Baker. We received a small wage of 10/- or 50p which rose to £l/10s or £1.50p by 1962 when I became a probationary nurse.
Our uniform consisted of a pink dress with short sleeves, black lace-up shoes and a
white starched square of material which had to be folded into a cap. Black cardigans were
allowed if it was cold.
Our work in the various departments was obviously different but one thing was the same, we were the juniors so it was our job to do the cleaning and make the tea! I’ll try to give you an insight into the work of each department.
Pharmacy : Our main task was washing bottles for re-use. Counting out tablets, checking orders from the wards and taking any urgently needed drugs to the wards.
Medical Records: This was mostly filing, either finding records ready for clinics or admission to the wards, or returning records into the system.
Almoner: This is an old fashioned term for a Social Worker. We were not allowed to have any direct involvement with patient’s problems. But we did learn who to contact for various sorts of help. Although there was not so many organisations or departments available then as now.
Physiotherapy: This was quite a nice department to work in as we had quite a bit of contact with the general public, which was what we all wanted. We were responsible for keeping the cubicles and changing rooms clean and tidy. Making sure that the equipment was in good working order and reporting any faults or damage. One of the stickiest jobs was to clean out the small wax bath. This was used to help patients with arthritic hands. The hands were dipped in the wax like a candle, then left for a specified length of time before the wax was peeled off and the fingers then gently manipulated by the physiotherapist. Apart from people visiting the department the physiotherapists went onto the wards to provide exercises for bedridden patients.
Pathology: This was a department where you could learn so much about the components of blood, germs and viruses. There was a histology area where specimens taken from a patient during an operation were examined to see if they were benign or cancerous.
This area kept a small collection of specimens which were abnormal to allow nurses and doctors to view and examine them rather than just observe them in books. Although we were not allowed to touch any slides, we were expected to keep the area clean. Another less pleasant job was to clean the slides and Petri dishes. These were placed in an old copper and boiled to kill the various germs, this would also soften the agar on which the germs were grown. As you can imagine this made a nice glutinous mess, so we always wore rubber gloves to remove the dishes from the copper. Sometimes the dishes would crack or break, which could lead to cut fingers, as I found out! This led to a visit to the Accident Department for a dressing and Tetanus injection.
A rather odd duty was to feed and water the mice. These mice were injected with urine from a woman who suspected she was pregnant, after a week or ten days the mice were gassed and dissected, the ovaries examined to see if any changes had occurred. Today this is done by a blood test or scans.
The Mortuary was an area we were not allowed to work in: personally I would have been interested to observe a post mortem at some stage of my training.
Administration: This in my opinion was one of the more boring areas to work. It involved most things that secretaries would be expected to do apart from typing letters or taking minutes of meetings. I suppose we were given an insight on how a hospital was run away from the wards.
X-Ray: Again a department which was to be very helpful in later years. Teaching us to read x-rays, obviously not as well as a Radiologist, but to give us a good idea if something was wrong. Our duties included cleaning equipment in the developing room, making sure the x-ray table was clean and that gowns were in the changing rooms. Also preparing the drink for barium meal x-rays, to determine disorders of the digestive tract. I also recall making copious amounts of coffee for the staff and patients alike.
Sewing Room: This is something I think that modem day nurses would laugh at. But in the years following the second world war when the country could not afford to splash out on new articles all the time it was a very necessary area. All the laundry was returned to the sewing room from the town laundry in large wicker hampers. This was then sorted into the various wards and departments, with anything requiring repair put on one side. These staff were also responsible for repairing staff uniforms and attaching labels for new members of staff. Today some nurses are allowed to wear their own clothes if their working in the community, they also do their own laundry.
Towards the end of 1961 I was allowed to help on a female ward. Making beds, serving drinks and meals. Helping patients unable to feed themselves. Taking telephone messages, running errands and cleaning a never ending stream of cupboards.
S.R.N. Training April 1962 - July 1965
My State Registration Training commenced in April 1962 after I had sat an entrance examination and had an interview with the Matron Miss Baker. Today you have to have a certain number of “A” level examinations to apply for a university degree course. You can also specialise straight away i.e. Midwifery or Children’s nursing. In my day you had to do your General Training first.
My group or set was made up of twelve people. We were a very mixed bunch: two or three of us had come through the cadet scheme, whilst others from Wales and London joined us. We had a girl who originated from Pakistan and two from Africa, one whose husband worked at the Kenyan Embassy. I can’t recall where the others came from that made up our set.
Our uniform was navy and white striped dresses with short sleeves. Our first year caps were the same as our cadet ones, these changed into little caps for our second and third years.
The collars on our dresses were starched and quite likely to rub your neck. In the third year we had a stiff blue belt. The Staff Nurses wore purple and white striped dresses with a purple belt, whilst the Sisters wore navy blue dresses and belts. We all wore white starched aprons which we were required to change on a regular basis. We were not allowed to wear jewellery, other than a wedding ring and stud earrings. None of your fancy rings or tattoos that are prevalent today. Make-up was supposed to be kept to a bare minimum: lipstick and discreet eye shadow.
Our first two and half months were spent in the Training School doing our “Preliminary Training. This involved lectures in Anatomy and Physiology by our Senior Tutor, Miss Mathis, who was nice but stood no nonsense and kept very much to the job in hand. Miss Race, her deputy, was very different and could fly into a temper if there was the slightest hint of frivolity. She taught us the practical things like the different ways of making a bed, bed baths, lifting and bandaging. We even had to learn how to make a poultice from Kaolin Paste and Friar’s Balsam inhalations.
In our last two weeks of P.T.S. we were assigned our first ward. Mine was Men’s Medical and Accident, under the watchful eye of Sister Cassidy. As you might expect, the age range of patients was great, from young lads in motor accidents, to old men with heart or lung problems.
Before we started our full time duties however we had two weeks holiday.
Being the newest and most junior member of the nursing staff I had all the dirty jobs, like cleaning the men’s urinals and bedpans, made of metal and were heavy, making beds and damp dusting all the lockers, ledges and window sills. It was known for Matron to walk by running her finger along a ledge to see if there was any dust! If a patient was discharged from the ward the bed had to be stripped and the whole thing wiped with strong disinfectant before remaking.
As we got used to ward routines we were allowed to help the more senior nurses to take temperatures and blood pressures. There was also the regular turning and pressure area treatments to reduce the risk of bedsores on our more immobile patients. Very rarely did a patient end up with a bedsore even though they might spend weeks or months in bed.
Another of our tasks was feeding patients, those on complete bed rest which meant they were not allowed to lift a finger to do anything for themselves, patients with heart problems or patients with spinal injuries who today are nursed in a completely different way.
It was frowned on to call a patient by his Christian name. Whilst we were always called by our surname or just “Nurse”. Doctors were treated like miniature “gods” and Matron the chief Goddess. It was frowned on to flirt with the young men on the accident side although we were also expected to keep their spirits up! Even so it was still possible to have some innocent fun when Sister was not on duty.
Perhaps here I’d better mention the hours and shifts we worked. When I started we worked forty-four hours a week which was divided up as follows: one shift of 7.00 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.; one shift of 7.00 a.m. - 6.15 p.m.; then two split shifts of either 7.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.- 8.15 p.m. or 7.00 a.m. - 10a.m. and 12.30 p.m. - 8.15 p.m. We had two full days off a week. Night duty was worked out over a two week rota so we had five nights off over the fortnight. Our night duty hours were 8.15 p.m. - 7.30 a.m.. If we were lucky our nights off could work out as a long weekend. We had no set days off either on days or nights, but if we requested a certain day off or shift the Sister usually tried to accommodate us.
Usually we worked for a period of three months on each ward. After my three months on Princes ward I did my first stint of night duty from the beginning of October 1962 through to mid-January 1963. This coincided with the worst winter since 1947.1 remember returning to the hospital on Boxing Day ready to go on duty that night with snow falling. The cold weather lasted for several months. Although the hospital had central heating it was totally inadequate to deal with the weather conditions. The temperatures were registering well below freezing 32°F. every night and during the day as well. All the ward windows which were only single glazed, had Venetian blinds which didn’t really keep out the draughts, so we hung blankets over the blinds and drew the bed curtains across the windows. The poor patients had extra blankets and their dressing gowns on their beds. We nurses had permission from Matron to wear our cardigans at night, we also used to put the gas ovens on in the kitchen to try to keep warm.
The snow and ice stayed around well into March by which time I was working on the Maternity Ward with three Sisters. Sister Strohm was the senior one and Sister Beaveridge was the most junior, I'm afraid the third name escapes me. Midwifery has changed so much since the early sixties, not the actual method of delivery, but the general attitude to childbirth. For example husbands were not allowed to remain with their wives during labour or delivery. Babies were kept in the nursery only being taken to the mothers at set times for feeding. All mothers breast fed their babies unless they were on drugs which might have been harmful to the baby. The fathers only saw their babies at evening visiting when they were invited to visit the nursery. Also the majority of babies were still being born at home. The only reasons for a hospital birth were, multiple births (twins), pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure), multigravida (more than three previous babies), or a need to have a caesarean section. The mothers usually stayed in hospital for a minimum of seven days.
In June, at the end of our first year, we had a study period with our two tutors. This was to refresh our minds on what we had learnt in our study days and the practical work on questions. But for our State Practical held in early June we had to travel further afield. In my case with my colleague Vicki Waters to London’s Bethnal Green Hospital. Neither Vicki nor I had any idea where the Hospital was situated but fortunately my fiancée said he would drive us there and wait until we had finished.
Bethnal Green Hospital was quite a depressing looking building, mainly because all the brickwork was black from years of accumulated dust and soot. Many buildings in London after the Second World War looked like this. But the interior was clean and shiny although painted in the most ugly greens, grey and creams. Vicki and I were met at the front entrance and escorted to an anteroom where we had to wait for our turn to be examined. When we eventually entered the examination room it was to be confronted with trolleys and tables with various items of equipment on them. There were beds which held patients who were mostly ready for discharge but had agreed to be our guinea pigs. The practical lasted for about an hour although it seemed much longer.
After the examinations were over it was back to the wards to await the results. Earlier in the year Miss Baker, who had given me the chance to pursue my chosen career, had retired. Her place was taken by Miss Parker who had previously worked at Watford General Hospital. Whilst we did not see much of the Matron you were always conscious of their presence. So the senior staff were very careful in what they said and did until they had got the measure of the new Matron.
As the results of our Finals were not expected until the end of July, beginning of August I was left with a bit of a quandary. My fiancée had heard that he was to be posted to Letchworth after our marriage in August, but as I could not drive at that time and there was no adequate bus service I would have to hand in my notice.
When we signed our contracts at the beginning of our training we agreed to work one year after our finals as a Staff Nurse. This gave us experience as a newly qualified nurse and the hospital continuous quota of nurses. Miss Parker was not pleased when I requested an interview with her to tender my resignation. But when I explained the situation she did agree that if I failed my final
examinations I could return to Hertford to re-sit the whole thing again. However for my month’s notice I was asked to work on night duty, but with holiday and nights off due to me, I eventually only worked two weeks.
The examination results were sent to your home address. If you received a slim envelope it probably meant you had failed, but fortunately mine was thick and bulky. I’d passed!
Only one in our group failed her examination, I think she re-sat it at the next test session. Two didn’t complete the course: one left to marry and live abroad, the other unfortunately died during her training. After our final examinations we all went in different directions, some like myself to marry, others to continue training in different branches of nursing.
In conclusion, I think my six years at Hertford County Hospital were on the whole happy ones. We had to work long hard hours, discipline was firm but mostly fair. There were times of sadness when patients died but also times of fun and happiness when patients beat all odds and survived to walk out of the hospital. The training itself gave you confidence to deal with many of the hardships encountered in life. You met people from every strata of society, whilst having to deal with drunks, bereaved relatives and frightened patients. Nurses were well respected in society and not often abused as can be the case today.
After my training I only returned to the hospital a few times. In early 1966 to attend the Graduation Ceremony to receive my Hospital Badge, watched by my husband and parents. The only time I wore the Staff Nurse’s uniform. Later that same year I attended the Ante-Natal Clinic before having my first son, delivered by Sister Beveridge who had helped train me in my midwifery duties.
After my finals I did not again do any nursing until 1977 when I worked in the local Geriatric Hospital in Bridgwater, Somerset. Following a stint in Orthopaedics I trained as a midwife, completing my training in 1984.1 had eleven very happy years working in a G.P. Unit and as a Community Midwife before retiring in 1995.