[NV052] : Stephanie at St George's 1976 - 1980 |
Stephanie was born in Great Yarmouth in May 1953. As a young girl she loved animals and wanted to be a vet, but her maths and physics skills were a little weak, and so she studied arts subjects at school and went on to study History at University College London.
Stephanie loved London and made many firm friends during her time at University. Some of these friends were Nurses at University College Hospital and, whilst talking to them over coffee, Stephanie began to think about nursing herself. She began by doing some voluntary work at Great Ormond Street Hospital, which further cemented the idea of nursing as a career. She was encouraged even more by her medical student flatmates, and so decided to apply for Graduate Nursing Training scheme.
Stephanie applied to several training programmes including The London Hospital, St Thomas’s and St George’s. She did not enjoy her experience of St Thomas’s, and whilst she did like the East End setting of the London Hospital (and the uniforms the nurses got to wear!); the laid back atmosphere of St George’s was the most appealing place, and so in September 1976 she began at St. George’s.
The Introductory Block took place at Hyde Park Corner and the new students went to live in Chelsea, something that greatly appealed to Stephanie. Before long though the trainees were moved down to start working on wards at Tooting which, after Hyde Park and Chelsea, was a bit of a culture shock!
The first ward Stephanie was assigned to was Amyand Ward, a female surgical ward. Here she spent half her time, with the rest of her time being spent at school. She then began the first of her 6 month rotations taking in Surgical, Paediatrics and medicine.
As training progressed Stephanie began to move through the Stage system. She started as a Stage 1 white belt and aimed to make it through to stage 4 in two years time.
Stephanie found living down in Tooting a ‘bit of a bind’, but was soon moved for her Stage 2 back to Hyde Park Corner, where she was much happier. She new London from her University days and enjoyed the fantastic position of her Montpellier street Nurses home.
Stage 3 of training saw Stephanie move to Atkinson Morely Hospital in Wimbledon. She found this part of training quite draining as she rarely got to see how patients progressed as they were quickly transferred back to their original hospitals following their, often critical, surgery.
After Atkinson Morley Stephanie spent some time at Springfield Psychiatric Hospital to as part of her Psyche rotation.
The next stage, Stage 4, was Stephanie’s last six months of training she spent some of this on Grovesnor Ward, a Cardiatric ward at Hyde Park, which she thoroughly enjoyed and some time on ITU at Tooting, which she enjoyed less.
Final exams were the only hurdle left and Stephanie took both Hospital and State Final exams a week apart. She passed the exams and returned to Grovesnor Ward as a Staff Nurse, where she continued to develop her interest in Cardiatric nursing. She worked on Grovesnor for 18 months, before transferring to the Heart Hospital to get a specialised qualification in cardiatrics.
Although Stephanie left St George’s she continued to nurse and later teach. She was a Sister Tutor at the Royal Free, before eventually moving into academia. She is currently researching the history of TB nursing in Bristol. She remembers St George’s very fondly and regards her time there as a ‘very good training’.
To read & listen to Stephanie's experiences whilst at St George's please click on Stephanie's Story