Page 37 - QARANC Vol 19 No 1 2021

provided ‘big screen’ viewing! We were both cheered and emotional seeing people we knew on television. It was difficult to deal with the uncertainty and concern for friends, colleagues and our students.
It was a stressful time; our UK workload was significant. QEMH was designated for casualties; in addition to teaching duties, along with other QAs I trained and worked as a Casualty Visiting Officer (CVO). A Hospital Welfare Officer (with experience following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, March 1987) inducted us into the role. CVOs visit, at all hours of the day and night, next-of-kin to inform them that their loved one is seriously ill or has died. It was challenging; care, compassion and communication were key. All of us who undertook this role felt that we were contributing something important and making good use of our skills.
These skills became top priorities when welcoming students and teaching staff back from the Gulf, students who had been working as BCRs at CMH, Aldershot, and the students who had been on NHS clinical placements. It was a time of adjustment and learning for everyone, not least our green badge first years who had only ever experienced NHS clinical placements. We emphasised that they were back in the Army!
Following the return of 22 and 33 Field Hospitals, by early summer 1991 we could restart training. Apart from the tensions between green badge students and their red counterparts, greater issues arose from playing ‘catch-up’ with the overlap, at a time when the military hospitals had only a small patient throughput. A cluster of very different placements were found, which were carefully matched with student learning needs, e.g. third year
students who had been to the Gulf had to have clinical placements compatible with their learning outcomes. The mix included NHS Hospitals at Lewisham, Woolwich, and Greenwich, as well as the Royal Hospital for Neuro- disability, the Star and Garter and the Wolfson Neuro-rehabilitation Centre. The CLEMs’ role was arduous; motor mileage claims were something else!
HNE became adept at offering students, who were in effect ‘free labour’ for these sites, where they were warmly welcomed. Most encountered a wider range of patients than they would have nursed in a military setting and recognised the value for their skills and knowledge. Throughout this entire ’adventure’, theory was taught in the school at QEMH and CLEM support was rigorously scheduled in all clinical practice settings. HNE (to this day testifying to having had a ‘good war’) worked both as a tutor and a CLEM, as a member of the teaching team both in the classroom and on the wards. This is probably the only time a QA Colonel has been seen wearing full QA ward dress with sleeves rolled up working on military wards; in her car she kept a navy ‘civvie’ sister’s dress for ‘clemming’ in civilian placements.
Communication was vital and regular meetings were held with students to provide them with support, and information and a listening ear. Contact cover for the students encompassed evenings and weekends. Over Christmas and New Year we split the teaching team; all sites were visited and, additionally, there were always two of us ‘on call’, available if required. Our role during suspension wasn’t just to support green badgers; we also supported red badgers working as BCRs. In addition, Irene the Admin Officer in the School at CMH provided a vital support role locally.
Colonel Sharon Findlay (Defence Nursing Advisor), a red badger (1/90) at the time, reports that “As we were so junior many of us did not deploy (only one nurse from our cohort deployed) and the majority of us remained in the UK as BCRs, and worked at the CMH as support workers. I worked in ED at first with the then Corporal Andy Berry before moving to the Louise Margaret Maternity Hospital which I absolutely loved and as a result was desperate to do my midwifery training when we qualified, but sadly the QAs had stopped midwifery training by then, but the experience gave me such a good grounding as we progressed in our careers once training restarted”.
Helping students adapt to working, in their Army uniforms, in NHS hospitals was important and we were delighted to receive feedback on their high standards of care; their turn-out was noted by all they worked with. One Army student, a notably fearsome rugby player, working on placement at Lewisham Hospital, carried his smartly pressed ‘whites’ on a hanger, wrapped carefully in a dry-cleaning bag, on the Number 54 bus, amusing other passengers and amazing his civvie colleagues!
For those who had been in the Gulf, their experiences, the things they had seen, the smells and sounds and stress of war were not anything those of us who had stayed in the UK can never really understand. What we could (and did) do was listen and support.
Looking back at these events of thirty years ago has been an interesting experience; I am grateful to Colonel (Retd) Lorna Numbers, Colonel Sharon Findlay and Major (Retd) Pauline Horton for sharing their memories.
Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Merrill Bate
The Gazette QARANC Association 35
QARANC Association Membership for Army Reserve Nurses and Health Care Assistants
Readers will have noticed that many contributions to the Gazette are from our members in the Army Reserve, and that many retired members have served as Reservists including several who have served as both Regular and Reserve QAs.
Benefits of membership are exactly the same for Reservists, Regulars and Retired members. Please consider joining the Army Reserve when you leave the Regular Army, and likewise,
if you are an Army Reserve QA please consider joining your Association.
We would love you to join, and if you join a branch, you will find a group of like-minded and kind people who live up to the Association motto of ‘Friendship’.
You can find out more by contacting Alison Roberts at RHQ Tel: 07761 144137, email: admin@qarancassociation.org.uk