So You Want to be a Nurse?

This fascinating 4-part memoir of Chris Davies Curtis' forty years as a nurse is divided into four parts. The ongoing story glides from one area to another, with personal recollections of her two marriages, and working in London, the tiny feudal Island of Sark, and New Zealand.

Part one; 'The Student' 1958-60, takes us to the 1950s as a trainee, where as students, nurses were trained in ward cleaning, cupping and applying leaches, as well as the finer points of total patient care. We share her experiences in various wards, and her first day in theatre, where there was a leg amputation taking place. She was left holding the leg, not knowing what to do with it.

Part two, 'London': 1960-66 and 1976. After marrying Ken, Chris variously works as a dental nurse, having to travel between the poorer East End and the wealthy Harley Street area. She works as a nurse in charge of minor operations, and then as a district nurse, riding a bicycle round a rough area, and coping without modern day conveniences. We learn with her how to boil instruments in a pan of water, in patient's homes, and giving total care.

Part three: 'Sark'; 1966-84 and 1984-2009; Chris and Ken move to the tiny car-free feudal Island of Sark, in the British Channel Islands, to open a guest house and smallholding. Chris's life on Sark spans over two marriages, when she was the Island nurse working with the only doctor, sometimes having to act as locum if he was away. The many stories are both poignant and sometime funny. On one occasion a lady fell into an open grave, cracking a rib, with her husband's quip; 'Bet it's the first time a patient came out of the grave, Chris.'

Part four; New Zealand; 1972-74, 1976-84 and from 2009. The final section is set in New Zealand where Chris now lives, and where she was a rural district nurse, working on her own and on twenty-four-hour call. Again, she has many tales to tell.

To young present-day nurses this delightful book, with its illustrations, will give flashes into a world long gone, and to those of a contemporary age and experience, it will be a reminder.

To summarise the author's message when asked 'So you want to be a nurse?' she replied 'Yes, yes, yes.'