A group of retired Queen’s Nurses have swapped stories with district nursing students at Queen Margaret University during an intergenerational event hosted by QNIS.
The round table discussions were alive with conversation – it was clear to see the mutual respect shared between students and the retired nurses.
This is the first in a series of three and features the group talking about the changes to uniform and the public’s perceptions of community nurses.
Students were left wide-eyed with some of the tales of normal experiences out on the district, yet the Queen’s Nurses were interested to hear some of the latest developments in practice and education.
Comparisons were made across all aspects of the role – treatments, infection control, styles of uniform, how to travel between visits, how to deal with difficult people, and what is in a nurse’s bag.
Some of the Queen’s Nurses, with their traditional humility, had questioned what they could bring to such an event, but afterwards, all seemed to realise that their experience was of great interest to the students.
Similarly, the students found it was not so much preaching to the choir, but were delighted to show how methods of training and practice have changed over the years.
The inter-generational events were a great success, and we hope to do more in the near future.
Sounds like a really wonderful experience , wish we could do something similar in Wales