posted on 24 Aug 2018

Susan Kendall Qualifies by Patricia Baldwin

I do hope that no schoolgirl ever picked this one up trying to find a true and accurate picture of a possible nursing career. I have written before  about the romantic and often glamorous presentation of careers such as modelling and air hosting that characterises ‘career’ novel aimed at young teenagers. Careers in ‘ vocational ‘ professional areas like teaching and nursing tend to be a bit more down to earth but the novels often present these professionals as being selfless, goody two shoes:  I suppose the fact that this one is published by Victory Press, Evangelical Publishers Ltd. should warn the reader about the content but I was nevertheless open-mouthed at this sequel to ‘Susan Kendall, Student Nurse’ by Patricia Baldwin which gives an almost total focus on young Sue’s wrestling with her soul as she takes on the responsibilities of her new career as a nurse.

Let’s start with the colourful front cover illustrated by Greta Jones which made me to pick up this book in a charity shop to add to my collection. We see a curly haired, red- lipped nurse looking down modestly as she helps an attractive older moustachioed man in a rather fetching chequered dressing gown walk with a stick across the ward. This is 1964 so we get a glimpse of another patient and a red lipped senior-looking nurse in what seems to be a long ward with walls painted in vivid green and yellow, a purple floor and plenty of flowers in evidence as well. No hints of religion as yet.

The strong Christian theme appears in the second sentence of the novel when Sue is approached by Jean, another new nurse because she has heard that others call her ‘the religious crank’.  Jean turns out to be even more religious than Sue as the story unfolds so this isn’t meant as a personal criticism at all. The tone is set as Sue explains how she has come to value Christianity in her life:

‘ I thought myself a cut above prayer – and above God, too, if it comes to that, but He, very graciously, had other plans and I’m glad to tell you that He challenged me to accept Him as my Saviour and I did’.

 After reading this rather unlikely pronouncement, I suspected that there was lots more similar stuff to come and so I steeled myself, because I wanted to know whether she was going to shut up and keep her beliefs to herself or try to convert others. You won’t be surprised to know that she just can’t resist talking about God at every possible opportunity with her colleagues and patients, which would now rightly get her into considerable hot water.

I found it difficult to untangle Sue’s relentless urge to talk about religion from her evident professional capability. She seems to be confident and resourceful with a clear talent for spotting problems and finding practical solutions that others seem unable to come up with. For instance, when a man is admitted and refuses to any answer questions and seems distressed she tries speaking to him in German and he responds. Despite her Christian faith, she is troubled that she is not doing enough to please God (compared with the unbearably pious Jean at any rate). She goes home to her parents for a two week break and does lots of thinking and praying. She comes from a relatively wealthy background with parents who don’t think much of her career choice and would prefer her to go to a good finishing school in preparation for life as a happy and efficient housewife. But she is determined to stick with nursing and when she happens upon a religious book in the local library called ‘Continuous Victory’, she reads it avidly and seems to undergo some kind of blissful conversion. She becomes more tolerant of her mother’s constant wittering:

‘Instead of trying to keep her temper when her mother irritated her, she quietly, in her heart, asked the Holy Spirit to fill her with love and understanding …’

Sue returns to her work at the hospital feeling spiritually renewed and physically refreshed, and even more obnoxious! By this point I was sick and tired of her glowing self- satisfaction and couldn’t imagine how anyone could bear to spend any time with her at all. I was very glad when a woman in Out-Patients vociferously complains about her patronising attitude. But I was soon furious again as she reassures the sobbing mother of a three year old child who has been badly scalded on her face and tells her not to worry because God only cares about the disfigurement of sin not the body. For goodness sake report this interfering woman somebody! There are lots more examples as she does her best to spread the word of God to all and sundry and to be dismayed when she is (understandably) shunned by a few of them. Having lived a very sheltered and privileged life, she is horrified by the effects of poverty and people living difficult lives to the extent that she pops in on one family whose mother is in hospital and baths the baby, tidies the house and organises the husband to do the washing. More grounds for dismissal I suspect.

You will gather that I read this novel with a mixture of outrage and disbelief but I have to admit that it was also interesting because it shows how religious evangelism can completely dominate both personal and professional aspects of a person’s life. After all, if you believe that people need to be ‘saved’, then I guess you do everything you can to convince them. I found this strength of conviction deeply disturbing but, between Sue’s many tedious preaching bouts, there is some interesting social history about the National Assistance Board and the general effects of poverty and disadvantage. There is a glimpse into life on the wards with various details of procedures and some insight into the range of diseases and accidents that a nurse would come across in her daily routine. It seems that hospital staff in the1960s era were all encouraged to stop and chat with patients and to provide a positive cheery approach, whatever their rank.  But I’m not convinced that reading it would have enticed many young girls into a nursing career because the religious aspect just sits on every page and gets in the way of the story. And I would imagine that any teenager reading it today would just laugh out loud, which I also did quite a lot.

Karen Argent

August 2018