In 1982, I was a student nurse working in an old Victorian
hospital built in 1887. It was built in the usual Victorian
manner, that within the same quadrangle they built the
infirmary, now known as Dudley Rd Hosptial, the
Lunatic asylum, which became All Saints Psychiatric
Hospital, Sommerville Workhouse, which be came Dudley Rd
Geriatric Hospital, and finally Winston Green Prison. All of
the buildings were in the same style and it was hard to say
which was which.
The psychiatric hospital was probably the the one building that looked as if it was transplanted from
a movie set, all it needed was a few bats flying around the main turret and you would think that it was Dracula's
castle.
I was a 2nd year student nurse and doing my 1st set of
night duty. I was a assigned to D16 the male Urology
ward. Working with me was a staff nurse and a auxiliary
nurse. There are 3 stories to the hospital and the wards
ran off one long corridor. Of a night, a sister was
assigned to cover a floor of 10 wards. The wards were what
is now known as "Florence wards", in that there were no
bays or single rooms, but the beds ran down the length of
the wards. The only privacy the patients had was a curtain
that could be pulled around the bed.
At the end of the ward there was a day room, toilets and bathrooms to the right,
and the sluice room and fire escape (which on all the
wards were usually bolted, chained and padlocked) to the
left. D16 is situated and the 2nd floor, about half way down
the corridor.
On my 4th or 5th shift, the staff nurse and I (the
auxiliary nurse was usually asleep in a chair) had settled
the patients down (the night sedation had been given out
and the lights turned off). We had set a couple of chairs up in
the middle of the ward, and were talking quietly by the
soft glow of the treatment room light that was left
on along with the one in the day staff office. Everything
was quiet except for snoring from both the auxiliary and
the patients.
Before long the staff nurse starts telling the
usual spooky stories to initiate me to night shift. After
scaring ourselves stupid we stopped and did the admin and
other duties. Now there is always supposed to be 2 staff
members on the ward all times. The Auxiliary was on her
break, which she took on another ward with a friend, so the
staff nurse and myself were left. However, we received
a call from another ward that there was a cardiac arrest on
that ward and they needed assistance as there were only
2nd and 3rd year nurses in charge. So the staff nurse
left me alone with the assurance that the night sister
would be with me soon. Plus the auxiliary would be back
soon anyway.
So here I was, alone (if you can be alone with 33 snoring
patients) and petrified; not of ghosts but the responsibility,
of all these people. It was with some relief that I heard
the door open and the night sister come in. She looked
straight at me and continued to walk past me. I took this
to mean that she wanted to do a ward round, in where I
follow her around and give a report on each patient.
However she continued to walk, not stopping at any of the
beds. I carried on tagging behind her, unsure of what to
do. She then turned left into the sliuce room and I followed.
She stopped dead. I stopped and hovered a little behind her.
Without turning around she said in a very harsh tone "Are
you following me?!", I was somewhat taken aback and stammered out a response
that I was not and slunk away back to the main ward to wait
her wrath as she was obviously upset with me.
I stood just outside the office which is located at the opposite
end of the ward to the sliuce room, and sulked. I was
nineteen years old and while terrified of authority I
thought she was a rude bitch, and who did she think she was
to talk to me that way?. I didn't do anything wrong to
warrent that kind of behaviour.
While I was nursing my resentments,the door opened and I
saw that the staff nurse had returned, with another nurse...
the Night Sister!
I proceeded to tell them that a night sister was here and
was in the sliuce room. They both looked puzzled as they
had just left the other 2 sisters. We all walked down to
the sliuce room only to find it empty. The fire escape still
locked, bolted, chained and padlocked.
Now I know that she did not leave the ward as she would
have had to walk past me to get out as there is only one
way in and out.
Submitted From: