"I was thinking about joining the police but my best friend talked me into nursing," semi-retired career nurse Rosemary Melvin said.
"The staff nicknamed our intake ‘the Beatles’ because they thought we were noisy."
The swinging ’60s trainee nurses remained friends and reunite regularly — including during the weekend of February 16-18 in Mosgiel.
Travellers from as far as Darwin and the North Island met up with the local women to go out for meals, catch up on family and talk about "the black and white days".
"We were all born in the same year — except one," Mrs Melvin said.
"Trainees had to be 17.5 to 35 years old and single to focus fully on the job."
The young women learned everything from bedmaking to obstetrics over a three and a-half years of on-the-job training.
"Things were very different back then but changing quickly ... Doctors were very important and the nurses followed behind them through the hospital with lots of people smoking in the wards . . . People stayed a long time — weeks with total bed rest — especially heart patients . . . New mothers stayed at least 10 days.
"There were a lot more car accidents with drink-driving in those days — we lost a lot of young people that way."
Student nurses earned 11 pounds, 18 shillings and 11 pence for a 12-day fortnight.
Training was paid for, with free board, meals, uniforms and a "stocking and shoes allowance".
"You weren’t allowed to go flatting until year three, and Saturday nights out were by permission only with a strict 11pm curfew.
"But we partied pretty well . . . A senior nurse reported some of the girls for coming home just five minutes late one night so they got their own back by locking a record player on repeat in the room next to her when she was trying to sleep on her night off.
"We had a lot of written and practical exams and not everyone got through [but] passing ‘state finals’ was a real highlight with a lot of ceremony, they made it very special for us."
Graduates eased into one-year contract staff nursing jobs including all hospital and ambulance duties.
Mrs Melvin’s hometown is Balclutha, but like most of the Beatles, her long career took her further afield, including to Australia.
