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Our Stories
The daily routine of a junior nurse at Cornwall Park’s National Women’s Hospital in 1963
The (slightly edited) memories of Karen Andersen Yates
Our morning duty started at 6 am. That was a trial for a teenager. Fortunately, the Home Assistant woke us up at 5.30am and made sure we were awake before going onto the next nurse.
6am: maternal ablutions
The first thing we did at the start of the day was give each mother a bedpan. This was followed by a swab, which was the role of the junior nurse. The mother was then placed on a clean pan and warm chlorhexidine solution was applied to the vulvar area with a swab dipped in the solution, in a special way. Following this, we flushed the remainder of the solution over the area, and then dried it. The pan was removed and an abdominal binder, made of a strong flannel-like material, was applied, both to secure the pad and to keep the abdomen tight. It required a lot of strength from the junior nurse and the skill was to make it tight but comfortable and secure it with large safety pins.
After the woman had washed using her bowl of warm water, we had to assist her to apply the breast binder, which we learnt to apply with great skill.
The mothers had to manage all their ablutions and toileting in the little cubicle they occupied for seven days. Some mothers who had several children at home enjoyed coming into hospital and not having to prepare meals, clean or care for their children and household. Others found it frustrating but most just accepted the rules of the hospital, as I did. That was the attitude of the day.
7am: breakfast, bedpans, bedmaking, and babies
The breakfast trolley was wheeled into the ward, and we had to have all the wash basins and pans in the sluice room where some would be boiling in the steriliser. We then assisted in giving out breakfast.
Breakfast was always a good substantial meal of porridge, or cereal, eggs on toast, baked tomatoes, maybe a sausage or baked beans as well. Whatever was served, it was hearty and well received. The mothers were hungry and enjoyed their meals.
While the mothers ate, we went off the ward to the staff dining room for our own breakfast. Like the mothers, we too were ready for a half an hour break, some food, fluids and just a rest from the running and fetching.
As a junior nurse, I felt it was like swimming in a big pond, as I was just trying so hard to understand the parameters of nursing, the hospital, how the system worked and where I fitted into it.
On our return from breakfast, it was pans again followed by swabbing and for those who wanted them, bedmaking. The babies were rolled out on a large oblong trolley, each one wrapped tightly in a large napkin and lying securely on the hard trolly within a small defined open space.
The dear mothers had so little time to spend with their babies, while they were feeding them. I remember seeing one woman undressing her baby and just having a good look at him or her; staring at this little human being, before it was whisked away again efficiently into the nursery. As junior nurses, we had little time with the babies. Instead, it was our job to go out into the sluice room to boil the pans, clean and boil the wash bowls, and leave the sluice room tidy. When there was time we helped change the babies’ nappies and feed them.
The Karitane nurse gave mothers support with breastfeeding and those babies that were slow in feeding.
8.30am: the arrival of Sister Lawson
Sister Lawson started her day at 8.30am. She was a big woman, tall with a loose belt around her waist. She often placed her thumbs in her belt when she made a pronouncement. Her voice fitted her size and as a junior nurse I was always alert as to where she was.
We, the staff and the mothers, were all a little bit on edge after that time, as instructions were pronounced loudly from the ward sister. To be fair, she also had a sense of humour, and her laugh was also loudly heard throughout the ward. She knew what was going on with the mothers and babies and talked to each mother every day. Her job was also to be with the consultants and doctors when they visited their patients. Many of the doctors were GPs, who were qualified in obstetrics and delivered their patients at Cornwall Hospital. There were also obstetricians that attended their patients. As a junior nurse, I just observed these important people coming and going from the ward.
Morning tea to shift change
Continuing the routine of the day, when the babies were safely back in the nursery, the bedmaking was completed and it was time to tidy the ward. We would damp dust until morning tea was served for the staff in the ward sister’s office, at the same time it was being served to the mothers in the ward. This was also the time when we received extra instructions, like who were to receive suppositories and who were to receive enemas, or any other instructions of note.
Early on in Sister Lawson’s ward, I was asked to give an enema to an older mother, in the side cubicle. As I had not given one before, the staff nurse showed me all the equipment needed and refreshed my memory of the procedure. It was to be a Triple H enema – High, Hot and a Hell of a Lot. As I was not used to using swear words, I quite enjoyed the use of this descriptive term, it certainly gave it the procedure meaning.
The woman was extremely uncomfortable. I carried out the procedure, with protective gear for myself and the bed, even if it was saggy.
The water was pleasantly warm and there was a small amount of soap in the solution. Everything went well. I left the dear woman sitting on the pan and went back to see her, only to have to bring yet another pan into this very smelly side room. The patient was grateful and told the ward sister she was so much more comfortable now.
After lunch, the patients were again given bedpans and the swabbing started again. Babies were fed again, and the ward was prepared for 2pm visiting.
2pm: shift change
At the report time of 2pm, when the afternoon shift came on, the morning and afternoon staff were squeezed into Sister Lawson’s office. She gave a report on each patient in the ward, with specific instructions for the afternoon shift. When Sister Lawson came to the mother who had had the 3H treatment, she praised my process, which I found most embarrassing, but no doubt Sister Lawson was happy that they had a satisfied patient.
Our Health Journeys would like to thank Karen Andersen Yates for sharing her memories with us, and allowing us to share her memories with Aotearoa.