"HURRY UP, NURSE!"

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 75, 30 March 1933, Page 13

"HURRY UP, NURSE!"

A PROBATIONER'S FIRST DAY. At eighteen I had decided that my vocation was nursing. At nineteen I left my public school to become a probationer at a children's hospital in South-west London (writes an English, nurse). Eagerness to begin my first day in "the noblest profession a woman can follow" made we awake at five o'clock. At 6.30, feeling shy and strange, I went with my chattering fellowe into Big Hall for breakfast. Aβ.the newest probationer it fell to me to hand plates to the nurses and probationers at one of the long tables. Each plate contained one kipper. At C.40 I had handed the last kipper to the last probationer. I dislike kippers even when they are hot and there is ample time in which to extract their bones. Mine was almost cold. At tf.so with the rest I was in the warde, and my first day had begun. Superintended by a senior probationer. I took the temperatures of about a dozen children, a few of whom saw that I was both, new and nervous. A new broom sweeps clean; a new probationer is overconscientious. Before the last temperature had been taken my senior's impatience was pronounced; while I had become slightly demoralised by her peremptory "Hurry up, nuree! Hurry up!" I accompanied her downstairs to the huge ovens where we left drums of cotton wool and lint to be sterilised for dressings'. A staff nurse then took charge of me. I helped. her to make the beds of ten children—"Hurry up, nurse! Hurry up!" —changed the bowls of disinfectant, boiled up the eink brushes, and dusted the ward—"Hurry up, nurse! Hurry up!" It was now ten o'clock and time to return to Big Hall for a mid-morning snack. I spread substantial sliced of bread with, excellent margarine and gobbled them with appreciation. Even the cocoa—a drink of which normally I am not fond —I found good and comforting. Off Duty.

Outside the grounds, with two hours off duty in front of me, I teok great gulps of air free, thank goodness, from the smell of hospital disinfectant. In Cheyne Walk I leaned over the Thames Embankment parapet, watching the unhurried seagulls as they swooped in the sunlight. There was, I found myself thinking, something to be said for the unhurried life of a seagull. Like a fool I spent most of the two hours in walking the Chelsea streets and gazing in the Chelsea shop windows. My shoes were new, in honour of my new profession. On duty again at noon, my feet ached and my stomach felt empty.

For half an hour I carried round the children's plates of mince, greens, and potatoes (followed by rice pudding), which the eister had served in. the nearby kitchen. The appetising emell of these dinners made my stomach feel emptier; I was sorry to find that I was not one of tho first batch of probationer diners to go to Big Hall. I was, I suppose, somewhat slow. Certainly I soon heard from the efeter the now familiar "Hurry up, nurse! Hurry up!" At 12.30 I began my dinner of" meat, vegetables, and two helpings of "stickfast"—to use the hospital staff's cliche for the ever-recurring rice pudding. Excellent in itself, this dinner left my body at peace but my conscience uneasy. lam a vegetarian! From 1 p.m. till 2 p.m. I washed, combed the hair, and etraightened the beds of ten children, and again dusted the ward. "Hurry ... !" From 2 p.m. till 3.30 p.m. I cut bread and butter, prepared a dozen tea trays, and took them round to the children. My aching feet made me resolve never in future to forget to tip my tea shop waitress. I cursed both my new shoes and my off-duty folly in walking so far. As for the staff nurse, I could have strangled her with no murmur from my consicence had I not known that her last words would have been "Hurry up, nuree! Hurry up!" Tea was at four o'clock. For twenty minutes I rested my feet. Too tired to eat more than one slice of bread and margarine, I was grateful indeed for the tea, and drank three cups. Cake, my neighbour told me, appeared on the tea table twice a week, but this chanced to be a cakeless day. For the next hour and a Balf I tidied linen cupboards and washed dirty napkins belonging to the babies of the ward. For the first time that day I was glad of the inescapable odour of disinfectant. From six till seven the staff nurse and I carried basins of water and mugs of mouthwash — "Hurry up, nurse!" —Tindressed and washed the small unwashed, of whom a number had to be blanket-bathed, put on their nightgowns, and made them ready for their warm supper drink. For two minutes I wished that I had been the mother of all ten of them. At seven I gave the ten their milk and 'said good-night.