Longest-serving hospital matron to retire

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 12

Longest-serving hospital matron to retire

The day before she took over as matron of St George’s Hospital in 1967, Miss Ethel Harrison attended a staff function full of enthusiasm for her new job and all set to put down roots for a decade. So, it was somewhat deflating to hear the secretarymanager of the hospital (Mr D. R. Smith) tell the assembled guests that it was customary for matrons to stay for only five years. “There was I, planning to be there for 10 years — until I retired — and wondering what 1 would do with the other five years if I followed tradition,” Miss Harrison said yesterday. Ethel Harrison has stayed 10 years and will retire at the end of next month as

the hospital’s longest-serving matron.

She has often reminded Mr Smith of the shock he gave her so soon after her appointment and Mr Smith always retaliated, she said, by saying that he did not have any grey hairs until she came along. “And I suppose most of them have appeared in the last five years,” she said, her brown eyes twinkling with mirth.

Looking back over the last decade at the hospital, Miss Harrison said it had been a most exciting time. “I was extremely fortunate,” she said. “I came in the middle of an extensive building programme which has brought so many new facilities. . .” At that point in the conversation she was interrupted by her 13-year-old Siamese cat, Nickolao, jumping in through an open window and demanding attention.

“Nicky” settled down on her desk as she soothed him and Miss Harrison continued: “I have seen many changes. For instance, patients don’t need to stay so long now because they recover from surgery more quickly with the use of molern methods. And older patients are having major surgery now with consid-

erable success — like hip replacements. This is most gratifying.”

Ethel Harrison has enjoyed her life at St George’s. “We’ve had a lot of fun; a lot of laughs all together.” The hospital, she said, was small enough to maintain a family feeling among patients and nursing staff. “We aim to have a very high standard of patient care and yet keep a homely atmosphere,” she said. “The

nurses get to know their patients and have a personal feeling for them, in a place of this size.”

With a bit of prompting, Ethel Harrison went back farther than her years at St George’s Hospital and talked about her nursing career. She did her general training at Christchurch Hospital, after which she was attached to the staff for about 19 years. For five years she was deputy-matron at Wairau Hospital, Blenheim, then went overseas for f-ree years and trained in midwifery. After that she joined the staff of a hospital in Zanzibar, East Africa, and became a tutor sister. Miss Harrison will retire to her home on Huntsbury Hill to make a garden and grow flowers and vegetables to her heart’s content, with “Nicky” looking on for sure.

But with a life-time of nursing service at her finger tips, the trim, active Ethel Harrison is not likely to drop her career completely. She is ready to do part-time work when needed. The new matron at St George’s will be Mrs P. A. Moore, who has been charge sister of the maternity department for five years. “I am so happy about her appointment. I think she is just ideal for the job,” said Miss Harrison.