More thoughts from Toby - Night duty memories.

We worked rotating rosters, 6 nights on, 2 off, for 6 weeks. The shifts were very long, on duty at 7.45 pm and off at 6 am next morning. If you were in Children's Ward you got off later, because the Charge Sister insisted that night duty nurse helped feed the breakfasts.

Often we had compulsory lectures at 8.30 am to attend and sometimes another to follow at 9.30 am. We had to attend the lectures to ensure that we were allowed to sit for Hospital exams, and you had to pass Hospital exams before you were allowed to sit for State exams.

So it was that often we fell asleep during lectures, and relied on our classmates to nudge and keep us awake, and their notes with which we used to catch up later. We were very unlucky if we had to then get up in the afternoon to attend yet another lecture at 3.30 pm. but this sometimes did happen.

We did not get paid any extra to do night duty, but at the end of 6 weeks we were given a few extra days off, and I used to catch the train home to Mum's in Adelaide. She would meet me at the station with a Balfours Kitchener bun, which I ate on the way home. Nothing will ever match a Balfours pie or bun!

Looking back now, I think we had a very demanding lifestyle whilst doing our training, and a lot of girls dropped out along the way, but we who stayed have lots of memories of those days, and have enjoyed some poignant re-unions, and enduring friendships.