Can any retired nurses out there answer this query?

SilverLining, looking back to late 1940s it's terrible the level of responsibility allocated to comparatively inexperienced girls.

1980s I taught Scottish Higher English to school leavers who would not have been admitted without higher English.Scottish Highers equivalent then to A-level in England.

wrong symbol

coolgran65 thank you for explaining....it is a very bad habit of mine to go off tangent . I do it IRL too.
I will try to curb it though in this instance there has been provocation. I will try hard not to do it again

Nannarose I accept you want to defend modern nurses but I have seen and heard very distressing incidents in recent times.
Not to me but to the women in the ward of just 4 . It was in 2 cases out and out nasty bullying.
Also I had to listen to a woman being reduced to tears at night by two nurses. There was no need and if I hadn't been wheeled into theatre early next morning I would have complained. I have never forgotten and I feel bad I could not help the poor woman

Also my friend in the hospital has had 10 years to watch certain standards of behaviour change.
Of course there are still wonderful nurses....my own recent experience was good...but it doesn't change my mind.
Sadly my poor health over many decades means I have seen and heard too much really.

I am grateful we have the NHS but I still think nurses should be more about vocation than university degree.

pinkquartz - I'm glad that part of your post was 'banter' but I have to defend modern nurses who, in my experience cope with a great deal.
I cannot refute any personal experience you have had,and am sorry if it was distressing. But would not like your comment about nurses being 'above the messes...' to be regarded as generally true.

pinkquartz I think it means stay with the topic subject and don't get personal about the poster.

welbeck

wtf does play the ball not the man mean? never heard that before

welbeck note

i included a grin to signify some humour also known as banter
no tone was lowered, the named person will understand.

My daughter started nurse training in London in ‘85 and definitely needed GCEs she had both O and A level she trained as a SRN and a few years later a RMN so doubly qualified
I think between 69 s and 80 s a lot changed and changed again as now you need a degree I believe

Will do Riverwalk ...it’s a bit dark and spooky though ? ?

My best friend started nurse training at 16 in 1963 directly on the ward. She had no qualifications but had enthusiasm and a caring nature. I do remember being a bit shocked that on her second day she was asked to give an elderly man a bath.

Sorry forgot to add, going with the majority - yes 5 O levels or entrance exam was the norm.

Suzette thank you for the cape reminder - I felt like a real nurse when I first put mine on, red straps crossed over at the front!

Do let us know when your book comes out Anja.

No wonder I couldn’t find a definitive answer, it seems there were various routes into nursing in those days.

Thanks to all who contributed.

Sorry RMN I meant.

Minimoon was the SRM nurse training a 2 or 3 year course?,

no, you don't have to say it, pink.
that is not necessary, lowers the tone of an interesting slice of social history.
play the ball not the man.

I have not been a nurse and also do not know the answer to the OP
but
GabrielleG54
I have to say though the idea of you as a nurse is utterly terrifying

I found nurses back in the day before Uni training were much more down to earth. I have seen some shockers in later years. They think they are above the messes that come with sick bodies in hospital !

One thing I do know about overseas nurses that came during the Post-War reconstruction period was that their overseas qualifications were not accepted as valid or equal. Considering most of those nurses were from Commonwealth countries with education systems set up by the British as equal to British education, I thought that was a cheap trick.
The NHS, especially during is first 25 years really relied on those nurses (and still does). Funnily enough this was less so with white Commonwealth personnel eg Kiwis. A good friend who trained as an SEN nurse in the 1970s said she was appalled by how her better qualified non-white colleagues were treated.

Maybe I was accepted because I was a Grammar School girl, although I left before sitting 'O' levels.

I started my training aged 17.9 in Autumn 1963.
I had no qualifications.
We spent 8 weeks at a training school (living in) and 1 day a week at the hospital we were allocated, before sitting exams.
After passing with the required marks we were then living in our respective hospitals for the next 12 months before being allowed to 'live out' for the next 2 years (or 3 if you were doing children's nursing)

I started my training in 1964, I completed a pre-nursing course at college and needed a minimum of three GCEs, one had to be English and I also needed to pass Anatomy and Physiology I also sat Biology and food technology with dietetics.
We had a very good matron who made her decisions at interview, she could spot potential nurses.

ElaineI, sometimes times as a student nurse there were so archaic, no one would put up with all that now!
Well remember the Red Home (not the cat though). We all tried to wrap ourselves in our capes and sleep there on our breaks on nights. Then you`d get back to the ward and there would be six admissions! `Four empty beds and we`re waiting` still strikes dread in my heart!
I stayed in the Quartermile hotel complex there a couple of years ago. Spooky being on the footprint of the old RIE.

Suzette it was March 74 I started. There was a Suzette in my class from Jamaica I think. I loved my training there and have often recounted funny tales to my family about things I did and got pulled up on! Do you remember the cat that pounced on your feet as you went from the dining room to the Red Home?