Past and present hospital staff from Swan Hill District Health marked the end of an era this week, coming together to reminisce about the Old Nurses' Home before the ageing building is demolished next month.
The site, which housed thousands of trainee nurses and their superiors over more than five decades, is being redeveloped to make way for the hospital's new emergency department (ED).
The three-storey brick building was officially opened in 1958 at a cost of 191,000 pounds.
It was one of several facilities of its kind across Australia that offered board and onsite training for nursing staff.
Every six months, a new cohort of trainees would take up residence at the home and begin their careers at the Swan Hill hospital, after completing initial study at the Northern District School of Nursing in Bendigo.
A 'big family affair'
Retired nurse Sue Donnelly, who moved into the building in 1965 when she was just 16, said she "couldn't wait to get in there" when she was a teenager.
"I loved it," she said. "We just had great friendships. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of learning experiences."
The nurses slept in single bedrooms with shared bathrooms and living areas, which was for most of the trainees their first experience of living away from home.
"I had my own room and a bath with beautiful clear water and it was luxury," Ms Donnelly recalled.
She said she still held many fond memories of her time in the home, particularly her close relationship with the hospital's elderly patients.
"We used to make friends with them," she said.
"If we were going to a ball on Friday night and we were all frocked up, we'd go over and see them all – big family affair it was."
Making memories and mischief
Meg Irvin, who was a nurse for 43 years, said although the hospital work came with its challenges, there was never a dull moment at the home.
"Some of us did get up to mischief at times ... and being teenagers or in our early twenties, we liked to go out and enjoy the night life," she said.
The nurses' home had a curfew, which Ms Irvin described as being "a problem at times", particularly when the nurses had to get back to their dorms after a late screening at the Swan Hill drive-in cinema.
"We would organise for somebody to have a window open so we could climb up and get in," she said.
Ms Irvin said the nurses also had their fair share of romantic suitors.
"Creeps would ring up the home looking for dates when they were in Swan Hill," she recalled.
"I remember one nurse's great comeback line: 'Sorry, it's Dial-a-Prayer here. You have the wrong number'."
Redevelopment on track
Changes to nursing education in the 1980s saw a decline in the number of schools offering board and onsite training.
The Swan Hill nurses' home remained as accommodation until 2000.
It was then converted into office space for the hospital and it housed Swan Hill's health promotion team and a pathology lab, services that are being relocated to make way for the emergency department.
The new department, expected to be operational by 2025, will boast larger waiting areas, a four-bed short-stay unit, and mental health treatment rooms.
Early works on the project have already begun.
Swan Hill District Health board director Greg Kuchel told staff gathered at the nurses' reunion that the emergency department would make a huge difference to the delivery of patient care.
"I doubt there's anybody here who hasn't been in the old ED: it's short on rooms, there are privacy issues and it's a difficult working environment to be in," he said.
"The new building will be a great environment for our staff, which they deserve, and hopefully it will be another step towards attracting staff to Swan Hill."
