Nurses

Two of my favourite cinematic nurses: 

Shirley Eaton as Dorothy Denton in Carry On Nurse (1959) 

and Juliet Mills as Joanna Jones in Nurse on Wheels (1963) 

 

 

I.

 

Should striking nurses in the UK be given a pay increase and improved working conditions?

 

Probably. 

 

But they should also, in my view, be subject to much higher levels of professional and personal conduct. Appearance, for example, should be made a matter of the highest priority; no one wants nurses with tattoos, piercings, or inappropriate hairstyles. 

 

And they should also return to wearing traditional uniforms, consisting of a dress, apron and cap, instead of slobbing about like overgrown toddlers in brightly-coloured, gender-neutral, polycotton short-sleeved tops and drawstring trousers (known by the ugly-sounding name scrubs) [1].

 

 

II. 

 

Nurses like to believe that people love and respect them and that this is a given.

 

However, such love and respect is a relatively recent thing; prior to the mid-19th century, nurses were thought to be immodest - if not actually shameless - women who, like prostitutes, offered intimate services and who were often drunk when providing such [2]. Even Florence Nightingale conceded that nursing was often the profession chosen by those women who were too stupid, too lazy, or too old to go on the game. 

 

It was only from the 1860s that educated women began to train as nurses and their status slowly began to improve (although their pay remained low and their working hours long) and only after the Second World War, with the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, that public affection for nurses was universal and unreserved; as was clear from their portrayal in films such as Carry On Nurse (1959) and Nurse on Wheels (1963) [3].     

 

But, sadly, this world has passed. And whilst nurses on the picket line today know how to shout and make wage demands, they have no idea that their role was once understood to be a spiritual calling ...   

 

 

Notes

 

[1] A traditional nurse's uniform is not just worn for practical reasons; it has symbolic value, signifying status, for example. And it's also designed (like a nun's habit) to enhance the allure of the wearer. The fact that nurses have decided to abandon such uniforms - first came the disposable paper caps in the 1970s and the plastic aprons in the 1980s, then came the scrubs imported from America in the 1990s - has been a grave error. 

      For a post on women in uniforms, published back in April 2014, click here. 

 

[2] The cultural stereotype of the naughty nurse continues to circulate in both the popular and pornographic imaginations and is undoubtedly rooted in this 19th-century idea that nurses were akin to prostitutes (i.e., women with loose morals and a liking for gin). 

      The image of the nurse as a ministering angel who stoically tends to the sick and dying out of Christian duty - a noble and devout being akin to a nun - was developed in part to counter the above, although it is simply the other side of the same coin and ultimately reinforces the virgin/whore dichotomy.  

      For a post on this topic, published back in April 2013, click here. 

 

[3] Carry on Nurse - the second in the long-running film series - starred Shirley Eaton as Staff Nurse Dorothy Denton, alongside many of the regular Carry On team (including Hattie Jacques as Matron). It was the UK's top-grossing film of 1959 and, with an audience of 10.4 million, had the highest cinema viewing of any of the Carry On films. Click here for the trailer on YouTube.

      Nurse on Wheels, starring Juliet Mills as District Nurse Joanna Jones, shares several members of its cast and production team with the Carry On films - like Carry On Nurse, it was directed by Gerald Thomas - but is not an official entry in the series and doesn't quite have the same level of campness or sauciness. Click here to watch the opening titles on YouTube.

      I am aware, of course, that such films do not necessarily depict the reality of nursing or of English life in this period - just as I'm aware that there are (so-called) male nurses.