He said ‘Nurse, how long have you worked here?’ And I said ‘This is my first day sir.’
Dorothy Cooper
When we went on the general training we used to do three months on a ward and then you’d do three months nights.
And you used to work shifts.
And you were taught everything on the wards.
The sisters actually did most of the teaching. How to give injections, how to do this sort of thing. And I worked in the operating theatres. What they called runners. When they’re operating, the consultants have got their own sisters who run their theatre. And we used to be the runners. Taking the, you know… The first day I was there I took these swabs out. Went for my coffee and came back. And the Sister said to me ‘Mr Rind wants to see you.’ And I thought oh golly, cause he’d got quite a reputation. And he said ‘Nurse, how long have you worked here?’ And I said ‘This is my first day sir.’
And he said ‘When you took the swabs away there was a foot inside it.’ Because they would send them to be dissected. They would wrap them up and put them to the side. And I just took the whole lot! So I was forgiven as it was only my first day.
But it was very interesting in theatre because we used to go into all the different ones And there was Mr Ord who used to specialise in cleft pallets in children. And he used to get some wonderful results.