Those were the nights! Part 2 . . .

Our spans of night duty came around pretty quickly; too quickly really, especially in the third year of our student training. We seemed to staff the hospital to be honest during our last year and in some ways it was great fun because you knew that there would be other friends on shift. It was only a matter of time before we were getting told off by the night nursing officer for making too much noise on our break. Stifling giggles has never been my strong point, but when tired it would amplify the giggleometer. I did try to maintain a serious, professional manner though, especially when requested to 'go on round' with the nursing officer on duty. This involved a 'walk round' report by each patient's bed where you were expected to know everything - preferably without referring to your hand written notes. This is fair enough but I used to find it tricky; become nervous and fumble my way through. Having 'got through' the night shift, I would attempt to eat breakfast whilst sat on my bed, back in my room. This would invariably end up with me waking up wearing best part of a cup of coffee, still in uniform. At the end of a run of nights; 5- 7 nights on the bounce, I would likely as not grab a bag and run off to the bus station at Digbeth to catch the coach to Hanley, for a chance to get home on my days off. It was the only thing that made the night duty worth it. Once you'd completed a span of duty on your allocated ward, it was customary, if you were popular, to be thrown into a bath full of water. Any thing else close to hand that could be added, such as iodine, the infamous 'Hibiscrub', talc and so on, was added to the mix. Most of which has now been ceremoniously removed from the store rooms. Never mind the fact that health and safety would hardly allow such goings on now-a-days! I padded back to my room, on more than one occasion, dripping wet, clutching borrowed towels and leaving a trail up the corridor; semi narked, but secretly pleased that they'd chosen to 'drench' me.