People at Work - The Nurse was published in 1963. That doesn't seem that long ago, but even with my fortunately limited experience of hospitals I can guess that the life of a nurse described in this book is very different to that of today. For a start, all the nurses are women, and because of the reference to the fact that they all live together in a nurses' home there is an assumption that they are unmarried.
I love this picture of the nurse sitting in her room in the nurses' home doing her knitting, and still smiling cheerfully even though she is very tired.
Because it is aimed at children, there is a a great deal of emphasis in this book about babies and children in the hospital. A particular point is made that children's wards are happy places, full of story books and toys. The children enjoy staying in hospital until they are better, with jelly and ice-cream which it is fun to eat in bed. There are even two pages which talk about the fun that children in hospital have at Christmas.
There is a great deal of detail in this book about all the different jobs that the nurses do. At the time it would have been a fantastic book for a child that was interested in becoming a nurse, or a child that was going to be spending time in hospital.
Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.
Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables
A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic
Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music
Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm
The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse
Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading
Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs
Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood
Wow - what a book. As you say it's amazing just how much nursing has changed over time isn't it. I love this series too. I managed to get my hands on The Car Makers recently, but am always looking out for others. I'm guessing the one about The Soldier could be a particularly fascinating read - especially to see how it is presented to children. Many thanks for joining in again x
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a series that I'm going to keep my eyes open for, it's fascinating
DeleteJust as a point of interest, the nurse sitting on her bed knitting is my Mum.
DeleteThat's brilliant, thank you for sharing!
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