When I became a Sister, once a year all the Sisters had a Christmas dinner. The nurses had one and the Sisters waited on them and then vice versa. And I didn’t realise, being the newest Sister, I had to stand up and give a speech. And I think after that they never asked anybody else! I was absolutely petrified. As you can imagine.

And all the Sisters and the doctors, we used to do a pantomime once a year. Which was great fun and very…

We had a Matron and an Assistant Matron. And one of them used to go round, every day, round all the wards and everybody would say ‘Quick! Get ready for Matron’s visit!’ And all the wheels of the beds had to be facing inwards. And all the sheets had to be a certain width. And she’d come along and the sister used to take her round and if everything wasn’t spot on and clean… Ooh. But she was ever so kind. They did a daily round and the Sisters used to go round and ask the usual questions ‘Have you had a bowel movement today? Have you drunk two litres of water?’ And of course we weren’t short of staff like they are now so you’d got time to really look after them. And feed them. Which they don’t have time for now. Which breaks my heart sometimes. When I see the conditions…

When you started your training you signed a contract for four years. And you were on the wards for three years after which you became a State registered nurse. Then for a year you were on a ward. You used to call them ‘Perms’, Permanent Assistant Sisters. And at the end of the fourth year, well that was when you could go but i stayed on as a Sister in Outpatients. And you didn’t specialise at any point until after you’d got your SRN. Which is very different from these days.