Yes Sister, No Sister: My Life as a Trainee Nurse in 1950s Yorkshire Paperback – Illustrated, September 1, 2010

I admit I love Betty Neels' light-romance stories, which usually center around a Dutch doctor and a British nurse in an undetermined era somewhere around the 50s and 60s. Reading this book brought those stories to life. When I read Nurse Craig's experiences I felt like she could have been a Neels character, so much of her hospital work was just like those romances - without the wealthy Dutch doctor. I've long been interested in both nursing and England, so I expected to enjoy this book - and I most certainly did. It's entertaining, with a serious underside now and then, and is written in a most engaging manner. Obviously training as a nurse in the 50s was different than today's technology-heavy professional education, but I can't help wondering if it wasn't more fun. I found the book to be a delightful step back in time, and not so very long ago at that - but worlds apart from today!

I really enjoyed this memoir, which comes across as authentic in both personal and work details, with the exception of the curious episode already mentioned by others - the carnage caused by what is claimed to be an IRA bomb in Leeds in the fifties. Since the recent 'troubles' that all but ended with the Good Friday Agreement in the nineties didn't start until the late sixties, this is a curious insert.Possible explanations I considered were: that this part was written when the author's memory was failing in old age and she was mixing up newspaper reports of bombings such as those in Manchester and Birmingham with what she imagined might have occurred in Leeds; that an over-zealous and misguided publisher's editor suggested it to unnecessarily liven up what was an already warm and often funny story; that the author has some sort of axe to grind about the previously-mentioned bombings of the seventies, and thus deliberately transferred her impressions of these to her book. Whatever the explanation, the inaccuracy - especially with vivid descriptions of children's deaths and mutilation - does unfortunately detract from the whole. I think there was also a place where the author fitted in three years between 24 and 25, but perhaps this is understandable because of the pace with which young people live their lives.Call me obstinate, though, for despite these niggles I still enjoyed the story and think it would make interesting reading for modern nurses who complain about having too much to do, as well as for anyone who likes having a glimpse into other people's working lives.

For anyone who has seen "Call the Midwife," or read the books the series is based on, this book,"Yes Sister, No Sister" is a must have. I worked with an RN that was from England. The first time she asked me where the "sluice" was, I had to give a "come again?" type of response. One she described it's use, all was clear. She wanted the "soiled utility room." I then explained to her that here in the Pacific Northwest a sluice was to be found in mining and timber industries. We had a good laugh.And, I now know who to thank for the patient workups I had to do for my assigned patient and had to be ready the next morning.Ms. Craig nee Worth's training is very akin to the "diploma nurse" training of many years ago.

I love books like this that show us how our profession was in years gone by. I've only been a nurse for almost 9 years (most of them in ICU and PACU, but I love post partum just as much) so it's an extremely fascinating read. My great aunts were both nurses in the days when you still had to live in the hospital or on the grounds, had to do the job of housekeeping, and much of the work that's now assigned to others. I wish for those days sometimes, but I'm also grateful for how far we've come with treatments and the things we're allowed to do as nurses. Still saving lives and caring. Florence would be proud.

I have a relative who went through nurse training in the fifties of the past century. American training was quite a bit different, and the rules were less fierce. Ms. Craig is a good descriptive writer but not of the first rank. As a memoir it was great to be cast back into a different era. It is good enough that I will share it with a friend who is a nurse, educated in the same era but at a Medical College, rather than in a hospital school of nursing. Lawton Posey

For someone in the medical field, this was an interesting book. It makes me glad that I have sterilized gauze and instruments to use for procedures! But nursing and taking care of the sick has not changed it still needs compassion and listening. This is an interesting well written story that really lets you feel what it would have been like to be trained as a nurse in England in the late 50's. And also what medical care was like then...not as archaic as some might think. A physician and nurse needed to be actual diagnosticians and not rely on bunches of tests...a good thing maybe

I am a nursing student right now and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While it may seem that much has changed since this time, I was surprised by how many things are the same. How many procedures they learn are the same ones we do, how many of the fears they have are shared by me and my classmates. I even bought a copy of this book for my friends in nursing school! There is a story in the book in which she inserts an NG tube into her own stomach because she wanted to know what it felt like to have it in and to do it on a real person. My classmates and I have seriously considered doing this on a couple of occasions so I could totally relate!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and was sorry when I finished it. Brought back many memories of my training. Great read

I enjoyed this book as I was a nurse in Canada who trained in early 60s. I could identify with some of her training. Nursing has changed very much since then. The book takes you through her experience as a nurse in training in Leeds...very enjoyable reading . I sent this to a friend who also enjoyed the book very much ( another nurse friend ). We reminisced about the part when some of the "nursing arts" were mentioned like linseed poultices as we had that too!! It was good for the author to capture her experience of nursing in the early days in this book. I am sure that nurses nowadays would have a very difficult time going through the same kind of training.

I was interested to see how this would compare with Monica Dickens' One Pair of Feet, and the answer is, just as good if not better. The period background (50s - early 60s) is evoked deftly, as are the various people with whom she trained and worked, most of whom are described affectionately, flaws and all. In the past, many women became nurses or teachers simply because they were the most accessible professions; here we have a description of an era when more career choices were beginning to open up and women were starting to take advantage of this, which adds an extra dimension of interest to the story.

I have enjoyed this book, but in common with many other reviewers, I find the inclusion of a fictitious IRA bombing in Leeds, to be a strange thing for the author to do. The foreword by Jennifer Craig states the book is a true account of her training at the LGI although some people had been given different names. A bombing is a major incident and during such incidents the emergency services are stretched to their limits. Their courage and dedication to doing their best to help the public is displayed. I have no doubt that had Jennifer Craig and her colleagues dealt with such a major incident, they would have dealt with it professionally and with compassion-but I can't understand why such an incident was included in the book if it had not happened. I have researched the "incident" and found nothing. I am born and bred in West Yorkshire and I have never heard of such an incident and neither have friends or family.. In the 1970s the atrocity which was the M62 coach bomb occurred, which killed service personnel. This is still remembered and had such an incident occurred in the 1950s in the centre of Leeds, I am sure we would have known about it and that there would be some kind of memorial to the victims.Apart from this, I enjoyed the story of the nurses training, although some nurses of the era have questioned some of the accounts of procedures and certain nursing duties. I think the best thing that shines through the book is the humour, the companionship and, most importantly, the obvious care and respect for the patients.

Jennifer Craig began her Nursing studies in 1952. I could relate on two counts--it's a personal experience, and as a school girlI had put in two summer vacations as a nurses aide in 1946/47. I could laugh out loud at some of the experiences, and relate tothem. Hospitals have undergone immense changes in the years that followed and I often wondered how nurses managed to keep up with the starched white uniforms, white stockings, jaunty starched caps. Today it's clean, of course, but certainly not starched hospital greens and running shoes to keep up the pace of today's nursing staff.I had a bit of trouble adjusting to her use of the tenses: eg: "I sit next to..." instead of "I sat next to..." and "She tells me..." instead of "She told me." etc. Nothing wrong with it, but I find that it slowed the flow.