Don't Be Shy, Nurse‪!‬

Nurses today have very different lives and training from those who embarked upon this career forty years ago.

This is this is an account of the three-year training of a nurse, set in a London hospital in the 1960s.

It is the story of one initially naive student nurse and her colleagues, as they progress from their first days as the junior girls, to the day when they eventually hold the letters of professional competence in their hands.

In order to arrive at this senior status, they experience many highs and lows, from the day of their arrival onto their first wards, where they are faced with the often-terrifying domination of the ward sisters. We then walk with them through the partings of the ways and the reunions, as they are split up and seconded to other branches of the hospital.

Throughout the three years, we get to know of not just the hard work and discipline, but also of their friendships, laughter, and tears.

Nurses in training today will be surprised at the sometimes dreadfully outdated and old-fashioned lives that these 1960s nurses seemed to live, but they will no doubt be charmed and fascinated too by this really lovely story, which is not so much about medical procedures and practices but is as much about the lives of those young girls who chose to leave home and live their lives in this way.