Today marks 72 years since the NHS was founded. To celebrate, we've been sharing some of our colleagues' amazing stories. Below, Patricia Oliver, Clinical Leader on the Neonatal Unit at the RLI tells her story...
#NHSBirthday #ThankYouTogether
"I was born on 5 July 1962 - just fourteen years after the inception of the NHS. I couldn`t have known it then but the NHS was to be an integral part of my life both as a child and as an adult, and I’m now approaching nearly 40 years of working within this amazing organisation.
"I knew I wanted to be a nurse when I was seven years old. I had sustained a head injury resulting in admission to the local hospital where I was an inpatient on the children`s ward for a week while I recovered from the effects of concussion and the indignity of cycling into a tree. I remember there was a nurse who was kind and very funny. She had lovely red hair and an Irish accent, and I grew up knowing that I wanted to be a nurse like her.
"A decade later, I commenced my nurse training at the Lancaster District School of Nursing which, in those days, was housed where the Education Centre at the RLI now stands. We lived in the Day Nurses’ Home (Springville House) and wore full uniform, including hat, during all blocks in school. On placement, we stood up when anyone senior came in, removed cardigans and did proper hospital corners on every bed ready for inspection. The long, thin wards at the Lancaster Moor Hospital had beds lined up like sentries and all had to be in a line with perfect corners.
"Upon qualifying, my first post was on the Children’s Surgical and Orthopaedic ward at the RLI, then adjacent to Ward 7 (or Bromley ward as it was originally called). Mr Whitehead featured prominently from those days, as did the film, ‘Grease’ which seemed to be on constant replay! I later worked on the Children’s Ward at Beaumont Hospital where Drs Matthews, Placzek and John are fondly recalled, as was the daily event of making ‘cottie teas’ at 4pm for those infants who were in cots. Working at Beaumont is probably the most treasured of my nursing memories - there was something unique and special about that hospital which is now long gone.
"Sometime later, I transferred to the Neonatal Unit at the RLI where I worked my way through to the role of sister or Clinical Leader as we are now known. I took flexi retirement on 5 July 2017 and returned to a part time role a month later, still on the Neonatal Unit.
"June 2021 marks 40 years since I first started my training as an NHS nurse. Except for two episodes of training to develop my nursing role, I have remained an employee of what is now UHMBT. I have seen many changes over the years in medicine, nursing and technology, and can wistfully reflect on the rose-tinted times when things seemed so much simpler - not necessarily better and certainly less advanced but undeniably simpler.
"Occasionally I bump into colleagues from those days of yore and always it is good to have a natter about those sepia days when the back trolley trundled down the wards and students were sent for ‘long stands’ or ‘size 4 fallopian tubes’. The NHS moves ever forward with advancements in treatment and care and I remain, as ever, deeply proud to be a part of this amazing, incredible, dynamic and utterly unmatchable institution which, from its inception, has endeavoured to keep patients at the centre of all that we do.
"Happy Birthday NHS! I shall raise a glass and applaud you at 5pm on Sunday. I am proud to share your day."
Patricia Oliver
Clinical Leader
Neonatal Unit, RLI