"How many swabs, Mr Harden?" I neither knew nor cared. I was knackered. It was 3am, my first night on I was fed up being treated like an idiot. I was 'Swab nurse' which meant that somehow I had to keep count of the cotton swabs used during another emergency operation. All I had to do was run around and pick up the bloody lumps of cotton that the surgeon had used during the the procedure and hang them up on a frame so they could be counted - 40 used 40 hanging on the frame, it was like a little washing line from a horror movie. The point was obvious, you didn't want to leave anything inside the patient once the wound was closed.
"35 I think, Sister" I muttered "Think?" she yelled " You need to
know, Nurse, count again!"
I understood these things The absolutes, the need to check, to count, to follow procedures but I was a 2nd year student nurse and this was the fourth week of my six week theatre placement and this was the umpteenth time I'd been yelled at.
It could and should have been the best, most interesting placement of all. Where else would you get to see the wonders of the human body in such an intimate way, where else would you watch true craftsmen and women at work, saving and repairing?
Instead it was the most unhappy period of my training. Somewhere in this intense, claustrophobic environment these nurses had forgotten how to relate to junior collegues.
At that time theatres were based at two sites. Orthopaedics and ENT at Princess Alice and General Surgery at St Marys. They were staffed by a mixture of trained and untrained nurses and Operating Department Assistants (ODAs). The ODAs were responsible for the anaesthetic equipment and the other paraphernalia that was part of theatre life. At St Marys there were two operating rooms with a connected anaesthetic area. Patients would arrive on trolleys semi conscious and leave in the same state by the same doors. I often wondered if they ever remembered passing through this strange world, this weird horizontal ballet.
The staff dynamics were very different to those on the wards. Surgeons very much ruled the roost and the focus of the work seemed often more about the procedure and less about the patient. One of the first hurdles to cross was knowing who anyone was. The trained staff wore smart blue overalls, students and auxiliaries wore tatty old green ones. You got to know people by their eyes or shape of their heads. I swear there were people that I worked with that I would only recognise when they put a mask on.
In terms of the training syllabus Theatre was an important and essential part of nurse training and the placements always took place at the same time ie around the start of the 2nd year.
For students it was a very different kind of experience, the patients didn't say much for a start. We spent two weeks at each of the two hospitals and two weeks on nights. The division of labour was much more stark in theatres. I remember every morning working with the auxiliaries preparing for the morning lists whilst the trained nurses had their morning coffee. We were treated like skivvies. This was typical of the many petty power games that went on whilst I was there. It was the only time I seriously considered leaving. Wiser heads pointed out that is was only six weeks and keep your head down.
At the end of the experience I had my formal appraisal. The Senior Nurse was genuinely surprised with my comments. "Theatres are not every one's cup of tea, Mr Harden" she sighed.
'Would you consider working in Theatres as a trained nurse?' was one of the questions on the appraisal form. I didn't have time to write that I would 'rather cut my foot off with a pen knife and post it to myself'
What is it about nurses that work in theatre? Do you need a different skill set to work there? They always had vacancies, they could neither recruit or keep staff. In the student world theatres was always the last resort if no other posts were available. Did that not tell a tale to my mystified Senior Nurse?
The six weeks that students spent in theatre was a real chance to promote this kind of nursing, to make it a great place to work. Sadly there was no one around with the vision to see that.
Part 10
One of the benefits of undertaking a nursing career in the 1970s was the oppurtunity to 'live in'. in hospital provided accomodation. This was a cheap and cheerful option for those who couldnt afford to rent a flat in the town. Accomodation was pretty basic, a bedsit with a sink and shared bathroom and kitchen. It was organised as strictly single sex and no visitors especially between the hours of sunset and sunrise. Female nurses were typically housed in a large accomodation blocks on the hospital site. 
