I qualified as a state registered nurse in 1946, after three years of training at Haywood Hospital in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. I did two years' work before the NHS came into being. We started work at 7.30am and had two hours off during the day, three on a Sunday. We worked 12-hour shifts through the day and the night. First job on the morning was to get report from the night staff, then Sister would give out the duties, be it bed-making, dressing, medications. We would wash the patients who needed it, which, alongside the wash, involved rubbing the patient’s back with methylated spirits then talcum powder to prevent bedsores. If the patient got bedsores, woe betide you! Meals came up from the kitchen, and Sister gave them out. If the patient needed assistance, it was the duty of the nurse caring for them to support them. During the late 1940s my husband also qualified as a nurse, which was very rare for a man at the time; he even joined the RAF as a nurse. I retired in 1985.