Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Headington Oxford

[nursesue]

I started my Orthopaedic course on 2/1/1978 ,at the tender age of 17, with the rest of set 97.
It was during the days of the Joint Board of Clinical Nursing Studies and was a pre- registration course. It was 20 months long and it was hard work but fun. In those days you could either opt for orthopaedics or ophthalmics as a pre -registration course. To complete the course you had to qualify as either SRN, SEN or physiotherapist to recieve your Orthopaedic Nursing Certificate(ONC) or Diploma of Orthopaedic Nursing(DON). On completion of training you recieved your hospital badge and on completion of general training you recieved either you blue ONC badge or green DON badge.
Our director of nurse education was Mr Edward Pinney - who was later awarded the OBE and wrote a version of the Nurse Study books( Orthopaedic Nursing). Our tutors were Sr King and Sr Anne Footner. We lived in the Nurses home with a 12 midnight curfew unless you asked permission for a late night pass. We soon learned which porters were on duty and "bribed" them to let us in should we over stay at one of the many university parties. Our trauma allocation was 8 weeks on either Cronshaw or Victoria wards at the old Radcliffe Infirmary ( in the days before it moved to its current location at the John Radcliffe hosp). This included 2 weeks in the Accident unit ( the medical emergency bit was seperate) learning all about sprains and broken bones. Most of the ward sisters were single and lived in Girdlestone House and were real dragons. I won't mention in any names as I have no wish to offend anybody.
All the wards, except the childrens wards, were single sex except the recovery unit. This is where we nursed post op patients for 24 hours before transfer back to one of the wards. All Total Hip replacement patients (THR) were operated on in the Charnley tent, complete with its own air supply to prevent infection. Orthopaedic infections were a big no-no in those days and they were in bed for 3 weeks complete with a Charnley wedge to prevent dislocation( rolling was forbidden and so manuel lifting was invloved) - and "back rounds" were a strict 2 hours and pressure sores were considered bad nursing!!!
The hospital had a private wing, the Mayfair suite, as well as Scott ward for infections. I remember nursing a patient with open TB of the neck and now have wonderful immunity to TB!!!
I hope you find this interesting and I'll write a piece about the history of the hospital at a later date. I then went back to Birmingham and completed my SRN training at Good Hope Hospital ( March 1980) and qualified as an SRN in May 1983 as one of the last groups to qualify under the General Nursing Council(GNC) -more to follow on this seperate subject.

[wilfb]

Hi Sue,

Please don't stop now - this topic has a great deal to offer us. Do you by any chance have a photograph of your group that we could post? What came next?

WB.

[nursesue]

hi Wilf - my training days photos have got lost ( much to my dismay) in the midsts of time ( ok so i mean many house moves) but I still have many happy memories..........
I will move back to this topic - I want to finish my design in history topics. I was wondering if I'd be able to do other nurse related topics.
sue

[nursesue]

a brief history of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC)

1872 Wingfield Convalescent Home was opened on the site now occupied by the NOC. It was funded by public donations, principally £1,545 from Mrs Hannah Wingfield, who did not live to see the project completed.
1914 The Home became an auxiliary hospital to the Third Southern General Hospital at the outbreak of the first world war. The increase in patients led to wooden huts being built in the grounds, including orthopaedic workshops due to the nature of many of the injuries.
1921 The home officially became an orthopaedic hospital.
1924 The buildings were improved and the Home became an open air hospital, with 125 beds and three private wards.
1930 A donation of some £70,000 from William Morris (later Lord Nuffield) made the rebuilding of the hospital possible.
1933 The Prince of Wales officially opened the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital
1937 G R Girdlestone, who treated patients during the first world war, became the first British Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1937.
1948 The hospital became part of the newly founded NHS.
1950 Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital was renamed the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC). It became the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust on 1st April 1991.
 
Training for both pre and post registration was offerd to both ENs & SRNs. The course was 20 months for pre reg and 12 months for post reg students. On completion you got the Orthopaedic Nursing certificate (ONC)for SRNs and Diploma Orthopaedic nursing (DON) for SENs. If you did the course pre-reg you couldn't use it until you had qualified as either SRN/SEN or as a physiotherapist. You could start training at 17 and needed  matrons permission if you wanted to stay out after midnight ( however we became good at climbing drainpipes and bribing porters not to lock the doors) We had a home warden ( whose name escapes me) and she was a bit of a busybody.
Mr R B Duthie was the professor at the time I was there. The wards were named after famous orthopaedic surgeons - such as Robert Jones and Girdlestone wards. Nani ward was named after an indian princess whose father made a donation ( not sure how true this is or if fantasy). There was a 24 hour recovery unit as well as preop ward and Sneddon wd - rheumatology. Scott wd was the infection unit (open TB of bones more common than osteomyelitis) and mayfair for the private work.
sue