RECOLLECTIONS
RAY (1960s)

THE FIRST DAY

Rossetti Ward

"It was December 1964 and I had been accepted as an Assistant Nurse at Cane Hill. My friend K and I planned to travel the world and thought that we might be able to save a bit if we ‘lived in’ at the hospital. The good news was that the salary had just been increased by 10 shillings (50p) per week … the bad news was that the cost of board and lodging had been increased by the same amount."

"Not that there was going to be a lot of financial slack in the first place. The salary, after board and lodgings, tax etc. came to the princely sum of £16 per month. The 6 day shifts alternated weekly between ‘earlies’ and ‘lates’. Earlies involved 5 days from 7.00am to 2.30pm, plus one ‘long day’ of 7.00am to 5.30pm. Lates meant 5 days from 1.30pm to 9.00pm, plus a long day. The one day off in the 48 hour working week was staggered throughout a 7 week cycle. So on the first week you had Sunday off, the next week Monday off, the following week Tuesday and so on. This meant that you had the luxury of a weekend off once every 7 weeks. Depending on which shift you were on, weekends were either ‘short’ – 9.00pm Friday to 7.00am Monday or ‘long’ – 2.30pm Friday to 1.30pm Monday. As the mathematically astute amongst you will see, this meant the luxury of a long weekend once every 14 weeks."

"So here I was, settled into my room in the Garden House (a temporary measure until the new Male Nurses’ Hostel was completed) and now making my way through the dark towards Rossetti Ward ready for my first early shift. I was pleased at this first placement. Rossetti was the medical ward … a mini 27 bed hospital within the 1600 bed main hospital. This was going to be more like ‘real’ nursing."

"Arriving at the ward I was swiftly issued with a ‘white’ coat (new Assistants and 1st year Students frequently had to make do with cast offs from the more senior staff). Fortunately this coat only had a few stains on it and so there I was, full of the ‘Florence Nightingales’ and ready to help my fellow man. Fellow ‘man’ being apposite as, in the 1960s, the hospital was still firmly divided into Male and Female sides … and ne’er the twain would meet (except at the weekly dance)."

The Staff Nurse pointed to a bed occupied by an elderly man and told me to help him wash and dress ready for breakfast. No problem, I gently woke him and asked whether he was ready to rise. He smiled pleasantly and started to ease his way up to a sitting position … he was fairly mobile, this was going to be easier than I thought. Then it hit me. I lifted a corner of the sheet and discovered that he was doubly incontinent. Worse still, he had smeared faeces almost everywhere with his hands. Where did one start when confronted with such a disaster area? Some time (and a soggy experience in the shower) later I had managed to get him clean, dressed and ready for his breakfast. I was certainly learning my new profession from the bottom up!"

"Once the patients had eaten, all the beds were made and the whole ward had been dusted and polished it was time for staff breakfasts. After the experience with my first patient it seemed appropriate that breakfast was sausages."

"Later the Staff Nurse took me to one side and gave me the fundamental advice that has served me well ever since … “Never tell someone that you care if you leave them sitting in shitty trousers”.



MANAGEMENT, UNIFORMS AND DISCIPLINE

In the mid-1960s National Service (in the armed forces) had only ended a few years earlier and many people over the age of 40 had been actively involved in World War 2. Therefore many at management level were ex-service personnel and, all too often, expected to be able to control their staff with the iron fist of military discipline."

"This was very much the case at Cane Hill as there had bee a long tradition of recruiting ex-Guardsmen when they were demobbed at the nearby Caterham Guards Depot. They left the army, marched out of the gates and were promptly employed (mainly) at Cane Hill but also at the nearby Netherne or St Lawrence’s hospitals."

"At the time I started at Cane Hill the Deputy Chief Male Nurse, several of the Assistant Chief Male Nurses, many of the Charge Nurses, Staff Nurses and Nursing Assistants were ex-Guardsmen. Discipline was a major pre-occupation for many of these men and the length of one’s hair or the colour of one’s shirt was of far greater importance than one’s ability to relate to the patients."

"All male staff were issued with and had to wear a uniform consisting of a gray three piece suit. The suits were made by the hospital tailors who, after measuring virtually every part of one’s body, produced the suits. From the same set of measurements, they occasionally managed to create a suit where the jacket was too tight whilst the waistcoat was too large. Nearly everyone had to have alterations made and some of the more style conscious (and affluent) took their suit to outside tailors to ensure a decent fit. With the suit we had to wear (and supply at our own cost) white shirts, a black tie, black socks and shoes. Hair had to be cut so that it cleared the collar of the shirt."

"Once on the ward we removed the jacket and donned a white coat. In theory two coats were supplied to all staff each week, but there were rarely enough to go around. We always tried to keep a clean one for Sunday when patient’s visitors were allowed. White coats had to be fully buttoned up (an undone white coat was the privilege of the doctors) and we each had our own supply of buttons. These were separate from the coat and fastened through eye-holes with a small split-ring. Buttons always seemed to be as rare as hen’s teeth and were fiercely guarded."

"One of my colleagues was a fanatical Liverpool FC supporter and was frequently in trouble for his habit of wearing a red and white striped shirt or red socks when there was a particularly important Liverpool football match. My main transgressions were about the length of my hair … what they would have made of the 18 inch long ponytail that I had in later years beggars belief."

"Discipline was strict especially concerning time-keeping. Of course this only applied to when you started a shift … never when you finished. In my second year I was living outside the hospital and used to travel in on my motorbike. One winter’s day I had struggled through a blizzard and heavy snow drifts to be on time for my early (7.00am) shift. I arrived at Zachary ward at 5 minutes past 7.00am and was promptly told by the Charge Nurse to report to the Deputy Chief Male Nurse after breakfast. He kept me waiting for the best part of an hour before dressing me down for my lateness. So my colleagues had been one nurse short for an hour during the busy morning … all because of 5 minutes!"

"On another occasion I was up in front of the Chief Male Nurse for damaging Hospital property. Well, perhaps I should put that in context … All the nurses received training in fire precautions and the male nurses were trained in basic fire fighting. This was due to the fact that we could get to a fire long before the nearest Fire Engine, which had to come from Purley. Whenever the alarm went any male nurses who could be spared ran to the fire station. There, shown on an indicator board, we discovered the location of the fire and the first group to arrive would take the two wheeled hand cart loaded with extinguishers and rescue equipment (it was like an old Boy Scout’s cart – two grabbed the cross bar handles and the rest pushed). The last to arrive would follow on with an identical cart which held the hoses. Mostly they were false alarms and we would arrive at a ward, out of breath but with the adrenaline pumping, only to discover that a patient had hit the fire alarm in anger or confusion."

"However, one day we arrived to discover that the alarm had been set off in the Male Nurses Hostel. Along with the others who had arrived first I set out with the first cart. When we arrived we learned that the fire had been caused by a lighted cigarette end which had gone down the garbage chute from the first floor and set light to the rubber dustbins which were accessed, from the outside, through pine louvered doors on the ground floor. By now the fire was starting to spread to the slats of the door … which we discovered was locked … and only the maintenance staff had a key. As the flames were now quite strong it seemed that there was no time to lose and two of us grabbed axes from the cart and smashed in the blazing door. Others followed and soon managed to put the fire out with extinguishers. We were pretty upbeat about the way we had handled a fire that threatened to burn down the fairly new hostel."

"We didn’t expect praise or reward. After all we were only doing what we were trained to do. What we certainly didn’t expect was for my fellow axe wielding colleague and I to be hauled up in front of the Chief Male Nurse and charged with ‘damaging hospital property’ – the louvered doors which were nearly burnt through when we attacked them! It took a threat, from our union, that nursing staff would no longer attend fire alarms before the Chief backed down."

"Discipline at Cane Hill was a strange thing … arbitrary and, all too often, based on whether your face fitted. I think, on balance, that I am fairly proud that mine never really fitted in. I took delight in the Chief having to announce my name, through somewhat gritted teeth, when I was presented with a book prize for coming top in the Intermediate exams at the end of the first year. By the end of my third year I resigned. As a copy of the resignation form went to the Royal College of Nursing I was put under a bit of pressure to amend my resignation form so that it gave a reason such as ‘Health’ or ‘Personal Reasons’. But it stayed as I had written it … ‘An inability to work within a Victorian System’.



THE MALE STUDENT NURSES HOSTEL

The Male Student Nurses Hostel

"After my first month as a nursing assistant I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in mental health. K, the friend with whom I entered into this, had decided that it was not for him and left. (We never did manage to make our way around the world). Still, I must have been doing something right because I was accepted as a student and found myself allocated a room in the new hostel."

"The 18 bed hostel opened in early 1965. Intended mainly for student nurses there were also a few nursing assistants and we were overseen by a resident staff nurse. Jim, our ‘guardian’ staff nurse, was a large, rumbustious Irishman and a great fan of the Guinness. Far from curbing our excesses, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy participating in them!"

"Female nurses were accommodated in the original large Nurse’s Home (always referred to as The Virgins’ Retreat). Here they were fiercely guarded by a resident Sister who had a room next to the only entrance and who was rumoured to be able to hear a male footstep at a thousand paces. For the romantically inclined one of the best options was the comparative privacy and comfort of the abandoned greenhouses near the Garden House. I was reliably informed that it could be a tad chilly in mid-winter … I, of course, could not comment on this."

"There was a connecting corridor between the old (female) accommodation and the new (male) hostel – but this was kept firmly locked. To the north of this corridor, open to the male side only, was a recreation room. On a few occasions we were permitted to invite female guests for a dance. Music was usually on the record player but, on one occasion, was provided by a band that featured one of the male students on bass guitar. Propriety was ensured by the all-seeing presence of the resident Sister."

"One instance highlights just how rigidly separate management tried to keep the sexes. Two female students were waiting outside the male hostel for a couple of lads to get ready to go down to the Red Lion for a lunchtime drink. The weather was thundery and, during a particularly heavy downpour, they stepped just inside the hallway to avoid getting soaked. They were seen there by the hostel housekeeper and reported. Despite the fact that it was mid-day; they were dressed in soaking rainwear and were no further than a yard or so into the very public hallway, they were both dismissed. These two Greek girls had traveled across Europe at their own expense to train in a job that few British people were prepared to undertake, only to be sacked over such an unbelievably minor infringement."

"Not that those of us who lived in the hostel could come and go as we wished. The door was always locked at midnight. All the windows on the ground floor were chocked so that they would only open a few inches. The fire door was kept locked! In theory we could apply to the Night Superintendent for a late pass. However, this required him to come over from the main hostel to unlock the door and was not something that could be done too often if you wanted to stay on the right side of the Night Super."

"Naturally, we considered that if we were adult enough for the responsibilities of the job, we were mature enough to have a front door key. Apart from that the situation put us in a dangerous position should there be a fire at night. Several meetings between the union and the Chief Male Nurse resulted in a solution … a key was placed in a glass fronted box in the hall and this could be smashed to access the key in an emergency!"

"Of course rules are only there to be broken and we had our own way of getting in and out after midnight, despite all the red tape. There was a rudimentary and easily climbed porch over the front door. The room over the door was occupied by a fairly studious guy named George who tended to play a lot of chess on his own and to have early nights. Being on the first floor he also had that most important factor - a window that opened fully. So, especially at weekends, there would be a steady stream of late-night revelers climbing the porch and going in through George’s window with a cheery “Goodnight George”. Fortunately for us George was a forgiving sort of person who never really seemed to mind his nocturnal visitors."

"After 6 months or so it was time for the hostel to have its official opening. Somehow they had talked Princes Alexandra into performing the opening ceremony. The hostel residents were told that we had to ensure the place was spotless; that all our rooms were immaculate and vacated as the (minor) royal personage would be shown one of our rooms (and obviously could not be allowed to come face to face with such a low form of life as a student nurse). Surrounded by higher management and the upper echelons of the nursing hierarchy, Princess Alexandra was given to brief guided tour. Much to the chagrin of the assembled dignitaries the room chosen for her to look into just happened to contain the snoring, sleeping form of its occupant ... who had been on nights and, as a fervent republican, later explained was “b*gg*r*d if he was going to lose any sleep for her!”

"Life in the hostel during the mid 1960s was pretty good. For many students it was their first time away from home and some managed to kick over the traces in a most convincing manner. We worked hard and certainly made sure that we played just as hard. Initially we had to make it up and down the mile long drive to the Red Lion in Coulsdon. Very few of us could afford cars but the affluent few who did would often ferry a crowd up or down the drive ... I even managed to transport a few at a time on the back of my old BSA motorcycle. A year or so after I started at Cane Hill the Social Club gained its own clubroom next to the bowling green. The drinks were comparatively cheap and we were frequently found to be ‘drunk in charge of a bowling ball’. Unfortunately the swimming pool, shown on later maps, had not been built during my time at Cane Hill."

"During one of the more hectic parties held at the hostel one of the students, who had been part of a drag act in the northern clubs, gave us a display of his show-stopping routine. Word of this got to the bosses and within a few days everyone living in the hostel was brought before the Chief Male Nurse. He only had one question for each of us … “Are you a queer?”. To most people today this would seem to be homophobic and a real intrusion into our privacy, but, to put it in context, homosexuality was still illegal at this time (it was only made legal in the UK in 1967). My response that ‘I was happy to prove my heterosexuality with any female of his choice’ was deemed to be insolent and uncalled for … you just can’t please some people!"

Ray
January 2007



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