Clean wards and clean plants
Nursing is a demanding profession but back in the day they were expected to be unmarried or widowed and live under the watchful eye of matron.
The majority had no formal training and spent most of their time cleaning.
Probationer Lucy Sutcliffe arrived for her first day at work in 1910 to discover that St Mark's Hospital exclusively treat rectal disease and that she be working on the men's ward. We can only imagine what her father - who had threatened to disown her for becoming a nurse - would have thought.
Her work included washing and delousing new admissions, cleaning wards, and polishing the leaves of house plants with castor oil. She also took patients to theatre and then stood on a pedestal above the operating table spraying the area with a fine mist of carbolic acid to reduce the risk of infection.
Probationers who completed one year's service were given a certificate of competence but, by the 1920s, the hospital still couldn't offer formal training that led to nursing registration.
One matron drily remarked that 'real disease may provide a fascinating source of study for doctors and research workers but, in so far as nurses are concerned, had little to recommend it in comparison to other specialisms'.'
Constance Lucas worked at St Mark's during the 1930s and recalled cringing on the way to work when the bus conductor loudly addressed her saying: “Here we are, miss. It's the bum hospital.”
Today, St Mark's employs more than two hundred nurses including several nurse consultants.