New Habits by Eleanor Stewart

Author:Eleanor Stewart
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Lion Books
Published: 2015-02-19T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Nights - July 1972

I had always liked night duty. My body clock adapted quickly and in general I had no problem sleeping during the day. Even the raucous voices and grinding mechanism of the dustbin lorries or school children passing the house failed to disturb me, though both of my flatmates complained bitterly about external noise. With Jeremy cat curled up beside me, and a hot water bottle at my feet if it was cold, I usually managed a good seven hours’ unbroken slumber.

At the hospital also, the atmosphere was different. There was something about the intimacy in the ward that wasn’t evident during the day. Perhaps it was the curtained windows and the darkness beyond that made us feel secluded and sheltered, in our own warm little world. The staff seemed more relaxed and the integration between the various professional levels closer. On night duty there were more part-time midwives and a higher proportion of auxiliary nurses. Both these groups were often older women who had returned to work after raising their own families. I undoubtedly benefited from their professional experience.

Night duty could be challenging, though. From 2 to 4 a.m., if we were not busy, we became almost lightheaded with a sort of disembodied fatigue. This period always seemed to me the hardest time. It was often difficult to stay awake. I found that, just as in Broadgreen when I was on night duty, confidences that would have been suppressed in the cold light of day were shared with intemperate recklessness, particularly in the small hours. Here the secrets openly shared were from the nurses, not the patients. Women together, I learned, will almost inevitably reveal details of the most personal relationships: parent–child, husband–wife. It would only take one to begin, and almost competitively others would join in. Sometimes, in fact mostly, it was funny and rarely bitter or recriminatory. It was, I suppose, a release mechanism on their part – glad to get it out of their system in this strange half-life. A nursing auxiliary, who often gave me a lift home, seemed to have a perfectly charming and affectionate husband, and yet we were regularly entertained by a hilarious and not altogether kind account of his qualities and defects both as a man and a husband.

My colleagues were also sometimes astoundingly revelatory about their health. Illnesses and operations were discussed with graphic detail, and not just their own but their partners’. We were prone to uncontrollable laughter on occasions. This relaxed and casual atmosphere was replicated in the adaptation we made to our uniform. Cardigans and shawls made their appearance, although these would be taken off when we went to attend to our charges. Sometimes our caps and aprons were removed, and it wasn’t uncommon for some of the older women to put on slippers. This would never have been tolerated at any of my Liverpool hospitals, but even the senior night sister at St Mary’s didn’t bat an eyelid.

On quiet nights we could read or knit; sometimes we played cards or just chatted in the little sitting room next to the office.

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