Nurses today have very different lives and training from those who embarked upon this career forty years ago.

This is an account of the three-year training of a nurse set in a famous London hospital in the 1960s.

It is the story of one initially naïve student nurse and her colleagues as they struggle from their first days as the junior girls to the day they

eventually hold the letter of professional competence in their hands.

In order to arrive at this senior status, they experience many highs and lows, from the day of their arrival in the nurses' home to their induction onto

their first wards, where they face the often-terrifying domination of the ward sisters.

We walk with them through partings of ways and the reunions as they are seconded to other branches, while throughout the three years we get to know of not

just the hard work and discipline involved but also the laughter, tears, and social dramas. Nurses in training today will probably be horrified at some of

the seemingly medieval practices and discipline applied then, but I would be surprised if the modern-day student nurse was not fascinated by this story.