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Nurse Training
Over the years many nurses went to Stannington to train, most of them in their late teens and not much older than some of the patients. Practical training would have been overseen by one of the senior nurses, a sister or matron, and because they were based in a tuberculosis sanatorium specific training had to be undertaken in addition to the more traditional nursing techniques. Margaret Shotton, who began work at Stannington in 1953 aged 17, describes how as a student nurse you had to start at the very bottom cleaning toilets and sluices before progressing up to working on the wards. This was one of the key elements of basic training along with bed making, diets, obtaining laboratory specimens, and the care of dying patients.
The infectious nature of TB and the specific treatments in use were covered in the practical training as laid down by the British Tuberculosis Association. Nurses were trained on the correct methods for the collection and disposal of sputum, the psychological approach to the treatment of the tuberculous patient, and preparation of patients for surgical procedures.
Practical nursing was just one part of the training and all the student nurses were required to attend regular lectures as well.
"We used the RAF huts, these Nissan Huts down the side of the hospital grounds, and they were our lecture rooms and you went form 10 o'clock to 12 in the morning, even on night duty."
Margaret Shotton
Lectures were held on site and given by medical and nursing staff on subjects including tuberculosis, theoretical nursing, tuberculosis nursing, and anatomy, physiology and hygiene. It is quite clear that the student nurses were kept very busy during their time at Stannington, and another former student nurse, Florence Parsons, describes how they were never left idle during working hours:
"The other job in the afternoon when the children were all put to rest, we had a scraper and we were taking all the black off the windows, you know during the war when they painted them all black that was our job."
Florence Parsons
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