Nurses celebrate 50th anniversary since commencing training

Nursing colleagues who started their training under the Waikato Hospital Training Scheme celebrating their 50th anniversary. Photo / Supplied

A few weeks ago, on March 24 and 25, 30 women who had trained to be nurses under the now-defunct Waikato Hospital Training Scheme met and celebrated their 50th anniversary.

Joining in the celebrations were 10 husbands, most of whom had been courting the nurses before the graduation ceremony in 1976.

Around 100 nurses started training in 1973, 69 in January and the rest in March. There were only two males in the class.

A tribute was paid to the six colleagues who had passed away in the intervening years at the formal Saturday night dinner held at the Hamilton Gardens Café.

Attendees described that low number as somewhat amazing.

The Friday night was an informal evening held at one of the nurse’s houses, who generously offered her home despite her being called away to the north of Auckland to be at the birth of her first grandchild.

Local nurses, from left: Chris Moir and Marie-ann Quin and Lynne Forsma (right) and friend Di Nicholson. Photo / Supplied

There was a family picnic held at the Hamilton Gardens for lunch.

One of the organising committee members pointed out that the flats that were formed towards the end of 1973 appeared to be made up of groups who shared opposite rooms in the various nurse homes.

Those rooms had been assigned in alphabetical order and life-long friendships were forged, many with their maiden names beginning with letters in the early or the later part of the alphabet.

Ten of the trainee nurses came from the Te Awamutu area, and some of these nurses still live here.

The intake was also part of a research project - at the start of training, a husband-and-wife team of university researchers interviewed the class to collect data, as 1973 was the first year that the polytechnic training started, with a three-year degree programme offered.

A paper, Nursing Education in Transition. The transfer of nursing education to the general system of education. 1973 — 1988: The Department of Health’s perspective, was written as a result of that longitudinal study.

Many good stories were told during the weekend.

Local nurses, from left: Sue Forsyth, Lynne Forsman and Chris Moir with some of their trainee colleagues. Photo / Supplied

A common theme was how tough the training was because the nurses were thrown in at the deep end and you either sank or swam.

Being in charge of a 36-bed medical ward on night duty as a 17-year-old, after only one year of training, was extremely challenging.

The system was hierarchical, with a matron, ward sisters, staff nurses and then the lowly student nurses. Nurses never questioned their seniors.

Using first names was a “no-no”, as were relationships with patients. Despite that rule, two nursed and then married their husbands.

The work was hard, therefore the month-long block classes were looked forward to.

Mischief happened when the group got together. Humour and camaraderie abounded, and more than once, the matron turned up to read the class the riot act for yet another misdemeanour that had been reported to her.

The cake was cut by Marie Lapwood (left) and Pam Sanders - Gold and Silver awardees from the training class. Photo / Supplied

Another unusual statistic, noted in the class, was how many had married in that first year after the end of the training and how many of those marriages have endured.

Four nurses went on to complete their midwifery training, and a wide variety of avenues in the health field were taken by others.

For different reasons, a few took other paths in life, but that didn’t change those long-lasting friendships.

Several nurses went on their OE after the training and ended up settling in Canada, Texas and Australia.