Chapter 29 Registered Nurse in The Country

  5th from 5th
                                    Chapter 29   Registered Nurse in The Country

I leaned over the railing of the nurses home veranda one day, waiting for Larry to drive through the front gate to pick me up to take me home for a long weekend off. I enjoyed the drives home with Larry. It was a good opportunity for brother-sister bonding, now that we were both a bit older. Eventually I saw his lovely, red Falcon sedan approaching and to my surprise there was a girl sitting in the passenger seat. I knew he'd been taking this girl out but on this occasion she proudly showed me her engagement ring. I knew Cassie from the hospital in Assville. She’d only stayed a short while before moving on to the little bush hospital at Eadervale.

      They married in September of 1964, and her sister and I were bridesmaids. We wore full-length pale blue dresses made from lurex, a heavy fabric predominantly woven with a shiny silver thread. The front hems of the dresses were caught up and secured with a self-made rose to show off the bright red high heel shoes we wore. On our heads we wore a fascinator, which was a little stiffened band of the blue lurex material with a self-made rose and blue net attached. It was a bit like a see-through miner's helmet, and we wore long, matching blue gloves and carried a little bouquet of red roses. Larry's two close friends from school and his cane cutting days were the best man and groomsman. Cassie wore a beautiful gown of embroidered cream satin with long sleeves which finished with a peak over the backs of her hands.

    While I was still in BGH training, Larry and Cassie had their first little baby girl and I became an aunt for the very first time. She was the dearest little baby and I just loved being an aunt. I knitted little baby things and after leaving the hospital, sewed little dresses and hats to match.

    One day when I knew the farm was being sold, I spent an hour or more on a visit walking around the yards and machinery taking photos with my little niece toddling along holding my hand. She was a bright little girl with black curly hair, and a sparkling cheeky nature.

    By the time training was finished I had arranged a starting date for midwifery at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne. I finished general training in January of 1966 and as my starting date in Melbourne was in May, I had four months to fill in. I had been training for four years and five weeks. Training normally took just 4 years, but the five weeks was added by the BGH Board because I had transferred from one hospital to another. Those trainees who had sick leave during the four years had to make up the time. I had no sick leave during my training but as I had taken a day off to attend my grandfather's funeral, I had one day to make up.

    When I got home, I rang the hospital in Assville to speak to my old friends, and when the old battleaxe heard my voice she straightaway told the matron that I was on the phone.  Before I knew it, (despite the fact that I had told my friends I would never work as a trained nurse, as I could never imagine being in charge of running a ward!), I suddenly had a job on the trained staff in Assville. 

    I worked there for three months and enjoyed it, but had a rough time one Sunday with only one nurse to assist me. The nurse was in the maternity ward seeing to the mothers and babies for their afternoon feeds when, down at the general end where I was working alone, (Sundays were generally quiet,) the ambulance brought in a young man who had been bucked off a horse and had a head injury. 

    I tried to notify the doctor on call but he was on the golf course. I then notified the matron as she was always on call to do x-rays. About half an hour after the first admission the ambulance turned up again with the second casualty. This time they brought in a footballer with a suspected fractured collarbone. I was starting to get flustered. All thoughts of a quiet Sunday at work now banished from my mind, I rushed around admitting the second patient and trying to get all the work done. A second phone call to the doctor still produced no results. I couldn't believe my eyes as I saw the ambulance pull in for a third time. I was astounded that they had yet another football injury on board.

     I spied the arm sling and thought, ‘Oh God. not another broken collarbone.‘

    I practically abused the ambulance driver, so stressed was I by then. I phoned both the matron and the doctor for the third time. It appeared the doctor was still out swinging his clubs in the fresh air, but the matron came across from her quarters in the nursing home soon after to x-ray the injuries.

    All this time my first casualty was getting restless about the lack of interest in his head, and decided he had more pressing commitments at home on the farm. Tough-man then walked out of the hospital, and we never heard any more about him.
             
                                                                  --0--

    Life moves slowly in a place like Assville, and most days on the wards were boring to the point of frustration. A drama took place one Saturday though that really shook me up. The morning work was in progress when I heard the front doorbell, and as no one else seemed to hear it, I wandered along the verandah, intent on answering it myself. 

    When I reached the front entrance there stood a young honorary, (part-time,) ambulance officer and an agitated young woman beside him.

     Dishevelled, wet and crying, she begged, “Please hurry! Oh, please hurry!”

    The distraught ambulance officer looked out of his depth.

     With his hands held out in front in a gesture of helplessness, he stammered, “Semiconscious–drowning–twins–we got them off the bottom of the waterhole...” 

    "Bring them in quickly!" I wheeled round and headed back down the hallway, stopping briefly at the matron's office, warning her of what was coming.

    She flew into action, issuing orders, working on the boy's chests until she was able to expel some water, and then she directed me to put them into oxygen tents. The two little 5-year-old boys were both asthmatics, but I'm pleased to say they made a full recovery. I sent up a silent prayer of thanks that the matron was close at hand that day.

    Only twenty years old when my training ended in January, I was turning twenty-one in the following July, which meant that I would be in Melbourne for my twenty-first birthday.  Twenty-one was the age of majority. Everyone had a party when they turned twenty-one, and I felt that missing out on a twenty-first birthday party would not do at all. So Mum and I organized a celebration. Dad also threw his heart into it and ordered printed invitations from the Assville newspaper office. (There was no other printing office in Assville) I made my own key out of gold cardboard. Two of my nursing friends from BGH stayed over in Green Springs with us. Most of the families from around Green Springs came to help me celebrate at the outdoor party/barbecue. It was a lovely night. I still treasure the gifts I was given. Cassie played the piano accordion but so young and shy was she that she sat facing a tree instead of facing the audience!

     In those days, reaching eighteen was no big deal at all. The first alcoholic binge occurred at twenty-one, if at all, and usually only by males. I remember Larry's hangover from overdoing it on wine when he turned twenty-one.

It pains me to witness on the television these days, young women abusing their livers so wantonly through youthful ignorance, because they will pay the price with their health in later years.