As part of our celebration of the NHS, this extract is taken from an oral history transcription after an interview with former Stannington Sanatorium student nurse Marjorie Wilson [T/882].
Marjorie began working at Stannington in 1949. She loved the work and enjoyed studying anatomy and physiology. When she was on day shift, she was awakened by someone knocking on the door at 6 am. They all had their own bedrooms at the nurses’ home, with washbasins, but the bathrooms were in a row at the end of the corridor. They had to be on the ward at 7am so the night staff could hand over and leave. The first task of the day was to wash the children, the night staff having already put their washing things out. Some children got bed baths, others just had their hands and face washed. Breakfast was brought over from the kitchens and they helped to feed those who could not feed themselves.
The nurses were not allowed on the ward while the teachers were there, but later served lunch. She could not remember if they administered treatments to the children before or after the teachers’ (who did not live in but came to Stannington every day from outside) visit. Some children had ulcers which had to be cleaned and bandaged. For the first few months she was at Stannington, streptomycin had not been introduced. Treatment was mainly bed rest and fresh air and they had to pull the beds out onto the veranda. They also had to make and tidy the beds, and do the ‘potty rounds’, taking any ambulant patients to the toilet. It was easy to take care of those who were on a frame, but they had to be kept very clean because they were lying in their beds for so long. One little boy called Garth was very possessive about everything, including his bodily excretions, which he hid in his sponge bag! The youngest patients were in a mixed ward. Another patient, Malcolm, had to have a dressing fed into the ulcers on his ankles. All the children’s pressure points were treated daily with dry soap, methylated spirits and powder, and none ever developed bed sores. Unfortunately there was not an awful lot of real nursing; mostly they were just looking after the patients, who had primary infections. Most of the patients had parents who were tubercular and were from the poorer areas of Tyneside, with poor housing conditions. Marjorie’s class was taken to see the areas the children came from. She recalled six symptoms of tuberculosis: cough; spit; hemoptysis (spitting blood); loss of weight; loss of appetite; and night sweats. None of the Stannington patients had hemoptysis, a sign of secondary TB infection, which is highly infectious and required a huge hygiene regime. Negative infection was not infectious but the patients could be very poorly. They had both types at Stannington. TB was discovered by X-ray for those with bone infections; they were on the frames for a long time, which made Marjorie wonder whether streptomycin was used, because those with lung TB or sores recovered so quickly. Marjorie remembered a girl with Down’s syndrome called Maureen, who was on a frame. She was very affectionate and strong, so she grabbed hold of the nurses for a cuddle. Hers was the only death that Marjorie experienced at Stannington.
In general the children were very well-behaved. The older ones could read or do jigsaws, while parents brought in small toys for the younger ones that they could play with in bed. One six year old girl with red curly hair had to lie on her tummy. She was such a lovely child with a lovely name – Lorraine. Marjorie ended up calling her daughter after her. In the early evening they would clear away the teatime meal and tidy the beds and children, getting them bedded down for when the night shift arrived. Night duty was three months at a time, with three days off after each fortnight. The first thing they did when coming on night shift was to get the children’s washing things ready for the morning. The main thing was to simply be there, as the children were asleep. They wrote letters and the report for the log book, with the night sister coming round a couple of times to make sure everything was alright. Sister Bevin was always on nights.
The medical superintendent was Dr Stobbs, who was in charge of the whole place. His family lived with him there – wife and two daughters. Marjorie remembered lovely dinners at the nurses’ home, which had a beautiful sitting-room with a baby grand piano and loads of comfy sofas. Dances were held there and if they brought partners, they had to introduce them to the Matron and the home sister who stood at one end of the room. It was all very formal. Dr Stobbs often made Marjorie sing after dinner. She recalled one of the Newcastle pantomimes coming to entertain the children with a condensed version of their show. She also remembered an open day with a brass band in which her father was playing. All the children were brought out, in bed on the verandas if necessary. She could not remember being at the sanatorium at Christmas, although she recalled getting very drunk once on Sister Bevin’s home-made rhubard wine. She fell into the bath and got her cloak soaking wet. They were all very ill the following day and Sister Bevin was very angry. They made their own entertainment as they did not have much money.
Marjorie described her relationship with the children as ‘bossy’. It was necessary to impose a kind of discipline on them because there were so many – forty on one ward. Day shift comprised the ward sister, staff nurse and two student nurses, plus an orderly (many were German girls, as were kitchen workers and cleaners) per ward. A lot was left to the student nurses because the ward sister and staff nurse were often incarcerated in the office. The orderlies kept the floor clean, while the students looked after the sluices and damp dusted around the ward. On visiting day at Stannington, the nurses stayed out of the way, although parents sometimes came and asked them how their child was getting on. The parents would sit round the bed of a bed-bound child, or go for a walk in the grounds if their child was mobile. The children cried after their parents left but got over their homesickness once they were back into the routing of the ward. Children are so adaptable; it was probably harder for the parents to cope with the separation. It would be a whole month before they could visit again. It was lovely when the children were well enough to go home; most left on the bus because few people had cars in those days. Marjorie did not remember Stannington being involved with any aftercare.