St JAMES' UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, LEEDS [aka "Jimmy's"]. 1981-85. It is almost exactly twenty five years ago that I started my nurse training at Jimmy's in Leeds. At the time it was [and perhaps still is] the largest teaching hospital in Europe. There was an active Nurses' Christian Fellowship [NCF] group there which I got involved with and later went on to help lead. Later in life I had the privilege to help re-launch a group for Christian nurses called "Christian Nurses & Midwives" [CNM] but that's another story...check out http://www.cnm.org.uk/ if you're interested! I recall one funny incident as a student there; I was working on a ward and it was lunchtime. I was merrily serving out meals from a food trolley when one of the qualified staff sidled up to me and whispered in my ear that I was doing a great job but that she couldn't quite understand why I was ladeling chocolate sauce for the dessert onto the roast beef! I was so embarrassed! Of course, there were difficult experiences too. My most chilling memory was to watch someone die of bleeding oesophageal varices. Yet I look back on my time at "Jimmy's" with a lot of fond memories - the whole experience was very formative. Nurse training then was [and perhaps still is] one way of "putting an old head on young shoulders"! And the friends I made were an enormous support and help - more so than I probably credited them with at the time. We also had some great adventures together exploring The Dales, The Peaks and The Lakes. I made some wonderful friends there - people who proved better friends to me than I ever was to them. ---------------------------------------------------------- tagline: Peter Swift. St James's University Hospital. Leeds. 1981. 1982. 1983. 1984. 1985. School of Nursing. RGN. Student Nurse. Staff Nurse. RSCN. Nurse Training. NCF. Nurses' Christian Fellowship. ----------------------------------------------------------