| Nursing: It’s so Much More than Just
a Job As we celebrate International Nurses’ Day, Amanda Diamond
reports on how Irish women have been stalwarts of the profession for decades
and a key part of Britain’s National Health Service.
Low pay and long hours go hand in hand with the nursing profession. And
nobody knows more about that than the legions of angels that came over from
Ireland to form the backbone of Britain’s hospitals from the 1950s onwards.
As the NHS embarks on a nursing recruitment drive to coincide with the
185th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, new research from the
Royal College of Nursing shows staff are not just confined to dishing out
pills and emptying bedpans.
According to chief nursing officer Chris Beasley: “Nurses see themselves
as highly skilled maxi-nurses”.
But how do experienced Irish nurses view their time on the wards?
Cork-born Dr Louise Ryan of Middlesex University says the sacrifice made
by Irish women leaving their homeland to work as nurses here in the NHS
has largely gone unsung.
She aims to put the record straight with a report that highlights the
working experience of the Irish nurse.
“Irish women made up the majority of Irish emigrants to Britain for much
of the 20th century,” she says.
“There has been some research recently on the particular needs of disadvantaged
groups of Irish emigrants but I wanted to look at professional people —
those who had done well in Britain — to see what their experiences were
and how they had contributed to British society.”
Dr Ryan interviewed more than 20 nurses and former nurses from around
Britain for her report.
“With the exception of one woman — who completed her nursing training
in Dublin — all the women I interviewed came to Britain as young students
to train in British hospitals.”
“Several told me that in 1950s Ireland, nursing and teaching were regarded
as the most respectable and desirable professions for girls”.
But teaching was usually ruled out because of the high cost of university
fees.
Because it was also expensive to train as a nurse in an Irish hospital,
training in Britain was often the only affordable option.
“In many cases older sisters, aunts and cousins, already working in British
hospitals, had written home encouraging younger relatives to join them.
It was therefore not unusual for several members of the one family to be
nursing in the same hospital”.
Student nurses were spared the struggle of finding rooms to rent and
lived in the relative comfort of the nurses’ home. But they had to have
a pass to stay out after ten o’clock at night and anyone sneaking in late
risked being reported to Matron.
Dr Ryan said: “Matron was universally feared but in most cases she was
also a respected figure. Almost all the women told me that the discipline
imposed by matron was a good thing as it ensured the efficient and safe
running of the hospital.”
“As student nurses, their training was quite regimented. After three
months in the Preliminary Training School (PTS), students were then allocated
to wards. They also did a three-month stretch on night duty and attended
lectures.”
“Several nurses spoke of their exhaustion as they were expected to attend
morning lectures after spending ten sleepless hours on night duty”. During
the first months on the wards students learned basic but essential skills.
“All described learning to make beds properly with ‘hospital corners’.
Matron, who made regular rounds of inspection, demanded high standards.
Any bed that wasn’t made perfectly had to be stripped and made again.”
Dr Ryan said that any student who incurred the wrath of Matron had her
name entered “in the book”. This was a serious punishment as it could result
in a poor reference at the end of nurse training.
Some hospitals were more welcoming than others: “One woman told me that
the Coventry hospital that recruited her had been described as an ‘Irish
Catholic’ hospital where attending Mass was encouraged and St. Patrick’s
Day celebrated.
“Hospitals that had fewer Irish staff were sometimes less sensitive to
Irish cultural issues. One nurse who trained in the North of England described
how isolated she felt in what seemed to be a ‘very English hospital’.”
“She experienced a lot of anti-Irish prejudice. She did very well in
her final exams and won the silver medal much to the surprise of those colleagues
who had told her ‘Irish people are all thick’.”
“However, most of the women said that they had rarely experienced any
anti-Irish prejudice during their careers. A few nurses mentioned that unpleasant
comments had been made to them by colleagues when particular events happened
such as when Lord Mountbatten was killed or when Margaret Thatcher’s hotel
room was bombed in Brighton.”
After training usually came marriage, but it was acceptable for nursing
wives to carry on working.
Dr Ryan said: “It was not marriage but motherhood that caused the women
to make some big decisions about their nursing careers. Only a small number
of women gave up nursing completely when their children were born.
“Because of the unique flexibility of nursing, most women continued to
do some part time work once their children were a little bit older”.
In most cases the women used to work two or three nights per week while
their husbands looked after the children. At a time when nurseries and crèches
were rare and expensive this was a practical solution.
“However, it also meant that the women were combining work by night with
childcare by day and often with very limited sleep. Several of the women
told me that doing ‘a few nights’ enabled them to save up enough money for
the deposit on a house and with two wages packets coming in it was easier
to get a mortgage.”
Nowadays the long hours and hard work involved in nursing does not appeal
to the younger generation of Irish women.
However, despite the hard work, long hours and strict discipline all
the women I interviewed remembered their student nursing days as among the
happiest of their lives.
As one retired nurse told me, nursing wasn’t just her job, it was her
identity.
Finding that Job...
Tom Crosbie, MD of
RecruitIreland.Com
offers the following tips to nurses:
Look out for exhibitions: The Nursing Times is running a free career
event at Earls Court in London, June 22-23. Tel: 020 7874 0542,
www.nursingtimescareers.co.uk.
Do some research: Look at the relevant specialist magazines to get a
feel for the opportunities that might be available to you as a qualified
nurse and to keep abreast of industry issues.
Go online: The Internet can save you time when checking out nursing vacancies.
The majority of health care trusts are online at
www.jobs.nhs.uk. Or
you can visit www.recruitireland.com.
Back to the NHS...?
The NHS is trying to woo back staff who have left nursing by introducing
incentives.
Health care professionals who return to the NHS receive £1,000 (£1,500
for midwives) to help support them during re-training. Those with children
may also be eligible for childcare support of up to £135 a week for one
child and £200 for two or more. A refresher course of training is free.
For more information visit
www.nhs.uk/careers.
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