Sue celebrates 50 years of caring

A nurse who started her training before the hospital where she works was built is celebrating five decades of caring.

Sue Baker began her training in August 1975 – four years before the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford opened.

As a student nurse, Sue quickly learned that matrons ruled the roost, and woe betide you if your uniform was not correct, including the starched apron and cap.

Sue, 68, said: “You would hear matron’s shoes coming along the corridor and then immediately find something to do so that you weren’t in her eye line.

“Everything had to be just so, and you had to know everything about every single patient on the ward; their names, procedures and how many days post-op they were.

“Every ward had its own domestic and they were very proud of their shiny floors.

“I had to ask permission to get married, and they did disapprove because my husband was a mortician. I was told nurses should associate with nurses or doctors.”

Nursing was Sue’s dream career from a very young child, and she followed in her aunt’s footsteps when she began her training at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

She said: “I knew from the minute I could talk I wanted to be a nurse. It definitely wasn’t influenced by my mum, as she couldn’t bear anything to do with people being poorly.

“But I liked looking after people and being able to help them feel better.”

Patient care looked quite different back then, with patients allowed to smoke in the day room, and alcohol on offer alongside the evening drug round.

Sue said: “Sometimes you would open the door to the day room and you wouldn’t be able to see which patients were in there as there was so much smoke!

“At 6pm when we took the drug trolley round we also had sherry for the ladies and beer for the men and it was quite popular.

“There were no rubber gloves, we just had to wash our hands. There were also no computers of course, so we had a giant logbook with the appointments in. It was all quite different.”

Sue moved to the William Harvey Hospital in 1986, and worked in the outpatients’ department, particularly in clinics for cancer patients. She also worked in the endoscopy department, and is now a clinic assistant in the fracture clinic.

The mum of two, who has seven grandchildren and another due soon, said: “Some of the patients do stay with you; particularly the younger ones who were quite poorly.

“I do remember an elderly lady who needed help eating, but she was quite a character and would always complain about it.

“It was always lovely to see patients who have been with us for a long time when they finish treatment and are on the road to recovery, and it was nice to know we had played a part in their journey.”

Sue has no plans to retire, although she has reduced her hours to three mornings a week.

She said: “I’m going to carry on as long as they will have me! I don’t feel that old – until I see doctors who I remember as very junior coming back as consultants.

“If someone had told me 50 years ago I would still be working in a hospital I would have told them they had lost the plot.

“But while I’m still fit enough to get out of bed and come here to work I intend to carry on – if I can help even a little bit then I will.”