55. Dear Matron, Having a lovely time".

Key words/phrases: Fixed versus inflexible holiday periods, factory fortnights, work's weeks, summer closures, School of Nursing, clinical areas, British hospitals, Nursing Admin Office,

No. 55

The concept of fixed holiday periods within the nursing profession and for most other groups of health service staff has hardly ever existed because of the very nature of the work that occurs in hospitals, with the exception of student and pupil nurses perhaps who were compelled to take their holidays during times that suited both the School of Nursing and the clinical (training) areas. Thus institutionalised holiday periods such as "factory fortnights", "work's weeks" and "summer closures" have never really featured in the world of British hospitals.

Nonetheless the start of the peak holiday season in the UK this week did remind me of one particular ritual which used to affect nurses at Joyce Green Hospital for quite a few years. Although whether this was something that was imposed solely upon trainee nurses or whether it was inflicted upon qualified members of nursing staff too I can't really remember now.

And the nature of the ritual ? Well, although not a very onerous task, there was a requirement towards the end of any holiday period that the trainee wrote to Matron from his/her holiday destination to advise her of his/her intention to return from holiday - as planned - on such and such a date !

Thus not only were the starting dates and finishing dates of the holidays of student and pupil nurses predetermined but to reassure Matron that you expected to recommence work on the prearranged date you also had to write to her whilst you were on holiday warning her of your expected return three or four days later !

If you had simply "gone home" for your holiday a short courtesy note would suffice whereas if you had gone further afield, say to a British seaside resort or more daringly "abroad", a coloured postcard was allowable.

However it always struck me as strange that (a) Matron required this reassurance in the first place because it seemed to me that if one either couldn't or didn't expect to return at the last moment for any reason a telephone call to the Nursing Administration Office would have sufficed equally as well and (b) the if one had only taken a fortnight's holiday, no sooner had the first week passed, than you would have to be take steps to announce the end of your holiday, a fact which you didn't usually want to remind yourself about!

So what did Matron or her deputies at Joyce Green Hospital do with all those letters and picture postcards - having taken note of their contents - which they could have anticipated in 99% of cases anyway ? File them vertically probably !