To celebrate International Nurses Day, the team at The Manor Care Home in Old Windsor are bringing together nurses of the past and present.
Jean Jackson (L), a resident at the home, worked as a registered nurse for 42 years, starting at age 18.
Mihaela Ivaniciuc (R) currently works as a nurse at The Manor, and has been a registered nurse for 23 years, starting her career in Romania on a paediatric physiotherapy ward.
The two nurses discussed their respective experiences in the field, with an overwhelming difference being the level of strictness that existed during Jean’s time as a nurse, compared to today.
Jean said: “The sister in charge was a scary person and if you were summoned to her office, you generally trembled with fear on the way there!”
Jean noted the difference in how modern-day nurses are treated in comparison to when she was nursing, saying:
“It was very much a man’s world- consultants ruled and you had to stand whenever one entered the room, open doors for them and agree with them regardless. I found this incredibly unfair and often the nurses were more skilled and knowledgeable than the doctors!”
Before moving to the UK four years ago, Mihaela worked in Italy in a private hospital. She was apprehensive about working in a hospital in the UK and therefore decided to try nursing in a care home, and she loved it so much that she never went back.
Mihaela said about working in a care home:
“When you say you are a nurse in a care home people think of you in a different way to a nurse at a hospital, when in fact you have to be so much more. You have to be nurse, carer, paramedic, advisor, therapist, councillor, just everything. So many more skills are needed!”
Both Jean and Mihaela discussed what they considered the best things about being a nurse. Jean said she loved “meeting so many people from different backgrounds and the variety in every day.” Mihaela could not choose one favourite part, saying that she loved everything about the job- “You need to love your job otherwise you will never survive in it!”