Half century spent nursing
City woman remembers career in mental health
THREE days into her first nursing role at Baillie Henderson Hospital, Margaret Gill wrote her resignation letter.
“For young nurses today, the 60s would have been a horror story for them,” Ms Gill said of her role.
Told by a friend to persist for three months, Ms Gill spent more than 54 years as a mental health nurse, 50 at Baillie Henderson, retiring on November 30 from St Andrew’s Hospital.
“My passion started probably when I was a 10-year-old girl. My parents joined me up in the Red Cross as a school activity,” she said.
“That continued when I became a teenager. I just sort of had this need to be empathetic to other people.”
Then known as Willowburn, Ms Gill remembered an “extremely interesting start” to her job.
“I was taken by an elderly lady, who was a client of the hospital, who felt that she was employed by the matron and also by the medical superintendent. Now that was my orientation,” she said.
“In today’s time you have nearly a week’s orientation.
“So that was the start of it. Three days later the horror began and I thought ‘I cannot take this, I need to resign’.”
Much has changed over her time as a nurse: from 20 people in a dormitory to individual rooms, and refining a procedure called electric convulsive therapy, that has come a long way from being “horrific”.
“You either had a piece of hose or a spoon that was wrapped with cloth and that was put in the mouth and you had nurses there to help hold them once they had the electric shock,” she said.
“When you think about what they have now, they go to theatre, they have a light aesthetic. It is just so much more humane.”
Ms Gill said she believed her role had always been to be emphatic towards towards other people.
“In mental health you can give the time and that is something that you need to be able to do. Because they can’t always tell you everything you need to have a good sense of observation that you can pick up before anything escalates.”