“You were working as part of a family”
As Newham Hospital prepares to celebrate its 40th birthday, we hear from one of its former students about his time there and how it helped him be the nurse he is today.
“When I finished secondary school in Ireland in 1987, I knew I wanted to study to be a nurse. But at that time, there was a two-year waiting list to get a place in a Dublin training hospital! I looked into alternatives and saw an advert in the paper – it said they were recruiting students to Newham’s school of nursing in East London. I decided to give it a go and put in an application.
“I took the boat from Dublin to Holyhead, then the train to London for my interview, an experience I’ll never forget. The director of nursing education, Mrs. S.A White interviewed me – she was a real character, smoking during the interview and commenting on the fact we had the same surname. She was tough but also put me at ease. Not long afterwards, I was offered a general nurse training place which I accepted, and I made the move to East London in 1988. I had £100 in my pocket.
“It took time to get used to how big and diverse London is”
“The move over was a big deal. I flew over with my parents – they’d never been on a plane before – and I’d never lived out of home before. I was nervous but excited.
"I remember meeting the other student nurses in my class on the first day – 11 of the 17 of us were Irish! There were people from the West Indies and Spain in my class too – they were a really great group. Other groups of student nurses in the hospital were from Malaysia, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. We were a diverse and inclusive bunch for the 80’s. Most of us lived in the nurses’ home which was on the hospital grounds and close to the school of nursing, so you could roll out of bed and into your lecture! This was really handy on the mornings after I’d had a late night in the hospitals social club (yes we had our own club and bar in the hospital grounds) or worked a part-time shift in one of the local pubs, which I regularly did to earn some extra money.
Mark and his student nursing classmates in the 1980s
“For the first few months we learned the basics of nursing. We were shuttled back and forth on the minibus every day between St Andrews hospital in Bow and the ‘new’ hospital in Glen Rd Plaistow, which was up and running for five years in 1988. After surviving the pre-training weeks in the nursing school, we started our ward placements, swapping between Newham hospital and the much older St Andrew’s Hospital. By this time St Andrews had no emergency department and most services were being transferred to Newham. I remember everyone (porters, kitchen staff, cleaners) being really nice and helpful. Hospital life in the 1980’s was a very social thing. Everyone soldiered on together and there was great comradery. We’d often go for a pint (or two) in one of the nearby Plaistow pubs after a difficult shift so we could let off some steam.
“Besides learning how to become a nurse, I was also learning how to live in London. It was amazing, different and exciting but also overwhelming at times. Ireland was a very different country back then compared to what it is now, and it took me and many of class mates a long time to get used to just how big and how diverse East London really is.
“What hadn’t changed was the sense of family”
“I graduated as a nurse from Newham Hospital in 1991 and took up my first staff nurse job working in the hospital’s special care baby unit (now the neonatal intensive care unit). After a year, I moved to the neonatal department in Whitechapel Hospital and then moved across a number of other hospitals in London, before returning home to Ireland in 1998.
"When I did eventually settle into the Irish health service, I really appreciated the diverse and excellent clinical training I received in Newham and the cultural awareness living in East London had given me. Arriving in East London aged 18, I had to quickly learn about and be aware of cultural differences that didn’t exist in Ireland at the time. This is something that has stood to me for my whole career and helped me in so many ways. I really believe that my time training in Newham Hospital has helped me understand the importance of culturally competent, person-centred care. It also helped me appreciate the strength that comes from working in diverse teams.
“Earlier this year, some colleagues and I re-visited Newham Hospital and it brought back so many memories. For many of us we had not seen the hospital in 30 years. Walking up Glen Rd into the hospital with my old student nurse comrades brought back so many memories and emotions. We had all trekked this path for many nursing shifts 35 years ago. I made a beeline for the neonatal unit where I reconnected with an old student I had mentored, Vera. It was unbelievable to see her again after so long. She was always so supportive. I paid a visit to ED as well where I recreated a photograph from that very ED 35 years ago – it was so much fun.
“What struck all of us was how much the hospital had changed and improved over the years. It was a lot calmer, looked fresher and brighter than when we were there in the late ‘80s. There are so many great new facilities, like the orthopaedic centre, the new ICU that’s being built and the staff wellbeing room.
“But what hadn’t changed was the sense of family. Working at Newham Hospital always felt like you were working as part of a family, and that’s still there to this day. It was really lovely to see and feel again. The dessert menu in the canteen hadn’t changed either – sponge cake and custard. We all had to have some, and it still tastes as lovely as it did over 30 years ago.”
Mark recreating a photo from 35 years ago on a recent visit to Newham Hospital