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Forty years ago six Lancashire Teaching Hospitals nurses started their training and today, they are still working together.
On 14 January 1985 Deborah Gibbons, Sandra Murray, Sanchia Baines, Jill Dixon, Jennifer Hardman and Joanne Godkin started their Registered General Nurse (RGN) training, with what was then Preston District Health Authority.
All six are still with the Trust and are celebrating four decades of service.
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When they began their nursing journey, the training school was based on Watling Street Road at Sharoe Green Hospital at what had been the workhouse – now Preston Business Centre.
Sanchia remembered: “Preston Health Authority paid you to do your training for three years, and you came out with your RGN qualification, although some of the girls in our group didn’t get jobs, because there weren’t the jobs available, and it was a struggle.”
Deborah added: “If you didn’t pass your exams at six weeks you were out – it was stressful.”
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First year students were expected to keep the training facility clean which included emptying ashtrays, with patients allowed to smoke in their rooms at the time.
There was an accommodation unit on site for students under the age of 21 which Joanne lived in. Once qualified as nurses, the group went their separate ways into different specialties.
Joanne went to work on ward 22 – a respiratory ward – while Jill went to ENT, and Jennifer to urology. Sanchia went into medicine, Sandra to gynae – where she has worked ever since, and Deborah started on Ward 9 at Royal Preston Hospital in mixed surgical and later went to maternity – where she had to do another 18 months’ training to become a midwife.
All stayed within the Trust – Joanne is a Staff Nurse in acute stroke, Jill a Staff Nurse in ophthalmology, Sanchia a clinical educator for surgery, while Sandra is a Gynae Oncology Specialist nurse, Deborah the Lead Midwife for Safeguarding, and Jennifer a Urology Specialist Nurse.
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Joanne said: “It’s a great job, I think all of us probably see it as a vocation.”
Sandra added: “You see a problem, and you want to do something about it.”
The biggest change in 40 years, all six agree, is technology and the demands on nurses however, each of the friends have left an impact throughout their work.
Sandra was he first Gynae Oncology Specialist in the Trust, Jennifer set up the prostate cancer support group and Deborah received the NHS Safeguarding Star Award for promoting safer sleep for babies and developed the enhanced support midwifery team.
Joanne said: “My greatest achievement is still being passionate about being a nurse – nothing grand!”
Jill added: “I feel the same. Working here for 40 years is something to be proud of. You forget what you’ve achieved, you don’t think about it, you just move on to the next thing!”
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