Nursing training at Addenbrooke’s began with the appointment of Alice Fisher as Matron in 1877. A few months later probationer nurses arrived at the hospital and the Board of the Hospital produced a list of regulations for them.
They woke up at 6am, had breakfast and said prayers at 6.30 and had to be on duty in the wards by 7am. Note is made that the probationers had to have made their own beds and left their rooms in order.
They remained on the ward apart from 30 minutes break for lunch and dinner and one hour for tea until 8.30pm when prayers were said again and supper taken. At 10pm they had to go to their dormitories and all lights were put out at 10.30 after which ‘perfect silence was to be observed’.
They had no regular days off but they did have short periods of time off duty from 11.15am to 12.15pm or from 3pm to 4.30pm. They also attended a 30 minute class each day.
Nursing training remained at Addenbrooke’s until 1989 when the Cambridge and Huntingdon, Peterborough and West Norfolk Schools of Nursing, amalgamated to form the Cambridgeshire College of Health Studies; which then formed a link with Hatfield Polytechnic (later the University of Hertfordshire).
