By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
THE high jinks of former Dandenong Hospital nurse Norma Dickson would probably shock a modern medical bureaucrat into cardiac arrest.
The Dandenong retiree recalls whiling the night-shift hours away in 1973 by shooting rabbits from an ambulance as it jolted through the hospital’s neighbouring paddocks.
It was a great lark until the ambulance got bogged. It was secretly winched out by another ambulance that night.
Retired since 2005, Ms Dickson felt safe to disclose the incident at the hospital’s 70th anniversary celebrations last week.
Along with tales of feral cats invading the hospital’s operating theatre and possums in the ceilings.
“There were different standards for the building in those days but the standard of nursing was A1 all the time,” Ms Dickson said.
The hospital was more ramshackle but also more intimate. Ms Dickson felt she knew all the other staff and patients before the hospital expanded and got busier.
Ms Dickson doubts she would have had the time for rabbit shooting on the night shift these days.
“We had our fun. That’s what makes it more interesting,” she said.
Of her 46 years as a nurse, 33 were spent in Dandenong. She also served as a nurse during the Vietnam War.
She said there was a bond with fellow nurses, such as with one of the hospital’s recent recruits Sam Riman, who doesn’t have to deal with wildlife but enjoys the job’s challenges, the feeling of not knowing what will confront her.
Whatever happened she could rely on the support of her peers, Ms Riman said.
Ms Dickson added: “That’s the good thing about it. Nurses have always looked after each other.”
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