To Be or Not to Be
Having been a member of the science side for so long, it comes hard to write a literary account; so please excuse my scientific mode of approach.
Experiment: To become a nurse.
Apparatus: A hospital, a uniform (including black stockings), and a patient (at least one is required).
Method: First become accepted into a hospital (NOT as a patient). From here you will be sent to a P.T. School (not Physical Tortures) but Preliminary Training. You will here be taught Anatomy, Physiology, Hygiene, Nursing and Dietetics, and all will be harder than you expected, especially after two years in the sixth. You will also learn how to make the perfect bed and you will make one every day at school (but never at home). Amusing things also happen - as one student wrote in an essay, ". . . the baby is bathed regularly twice a year . . . ."
After about two months at work you begin to wonder if you chose the right profession or ought to give in your resignation. Luckily this stage soon passes and the exams, thankfully come and go.
If you have passed you will then be allowed to go into the hospital wards and put into practice what you have been taught. On the wards you will find you have left the three "R's" to come to the four "B's", i.e. Beds, Backs, Baths and Bed P—s.
Soon you become used to working all hours, odd hours, long hours, short hours, pottering about wards, fetching, carrying, calming, being calmed, worrying, laughing, hastily devouring some food off the meal trolley, being caught and suffering the consequences. In the meantime you endeavour to keep up your outside activities, that is if you can remember what they are.
Conclusion: The experiment is possible if you work hard and in any case it is worth trying.
Future S.R.N.
A Visit to Wales
Enid Whitehead and myself (Jean Wild) belong to an organisation called Camp Fire, which is similar to Guides. It was the Thursday before Trinity Weekend when a party of eighteen set off for Wales. We got off the train at Llandudno where we then caught a bus to Llanrwst. The hostel was two miles away from the town so it was very late when we arrived at Oaklands Youth Hostel. Miss Street (the lady in charge) called us all to bed after we had made up our bunks and explored around the hostel.
Next morning (Friday) we all woke when the rising bell went at seven o'clock. After washing and dressing we all trooped down to the self-cooking kitchen and we proceeded to cook our own breakfast. I had to go down to the farm for milk with another girl. After breakfast Enid and I had to sweep out a dormitory. At last we were ready to set off on a. hike to Swallow Falls carrying full pack as we were going on to a new hostel in the evening. It was a glorious sunny day, but rather too hot for comfort. We walked through Betws-y-Coed where we stopped at a wayside cafe to buy soft drinks, ice cream and fruit. We were all very careful to deposit our litter in a bin as Miss Street enforces a 2d. fine for dropping litter. I was very tired by the time we reached Swallow Falls, but it was worth the walk to see the Falls. Enid took two photographs of the Falls.
After having lunch we walked a little way then stopped to have a paddle. Pat, another girl on the trip, slipped on a rock and got all her clothes wet.
As it was late in the afternoon by then we got a bus to Colwyn Bay and our new hostel, Foxhill, where we were going to stay for two nights.
That night a few of us sat on a top bunk and told ghost stories in the half light. It was very eerie.
Next morning we had to weed the path round the lily pond but a few of the young ones would not as they were too frightened of the snakes we had been warned about.
We visited a church during the morning which was very interesting. In the afternoon after we had had lunch in a field we went on to the beach. The next day (Sunday) we also spent on the beach and in a park as it was much too hot to walk. At six o'clock we got on a train home. Our legs and arms and faces were smarting with sunburn but we were very, very happy indeed.