Call the Midwife.

[Toddlerteaplease]

What is going on with Mother Mildreds make up?

Quite possibly. No idea how long it would take to qualify though.

Next week:

Val is brought to justice when it turns out she's faked all her qualifications and her only training was at her nan's home abortion studio.

Dr Turner uses the teal handcuffs on her and mansplains that Lying Is Bad, whilst nodding sagely and keeping a calm and sympathetic face.

Mae's adoption waits another week until she learns to stop running in her stockinged feet.

Couldn’t you start nursing training at 16?

Valerie would be around 30 years old at a guess, she can remember being in the shelters during the blitz, so a child at that time.

If she left school at 15 that’d be plenty of time to become a nurse be a nurse in the army, work for her mum in the pub then work as a midwife

Also there is some suspicion on how she left the army, so not sure she did her full years

You could start nursing training at 16 - my mother did in 1965, at 16 anyway.

I think, in the late 60s, you could be a nurse cadet at 16 but not do all of the work of a qualified nurse. At that time you could be a State Enrolled Nurse with 2 O levels or a State Registered Nurse with 5. You could still leave school at 15 until 1970.

The young doctors could be slightly older than now as well, if they did National Service... Or is it too late for that?

And while we are at it, how old is wonder doctor, if he's old enough to have been a doctor in the war?

and now you need a degree to be a nurse. Nursing I think should be learnt on the job not in front of a whiteboard.

Nurses nowadays do a lot more tasks which were formerly done by doctors which is why it was turned into a graduate profession. I think the two tier system was a good idea, though, as there are plenty of less academic but caring would-be nurses who would have a valuable role to play. My nurse friends who have worked under both systems think this anyway.

Haven't we basically gone back to a two tier system now by default, by having Health Care Assistants doing a lot of stuff that nurses would have done in days of yore? In fact, have we gone backwards, given that HCAs don't have to be qualified as far as I'm aware?

The young doctors could be slightly older than now as well, if they did National Service... Or is it too late for that?

If you were born in 1940 you would certainly miss National Service

I think, but don’t quote me 1938 males would be the last to do this

Wikipedia says: National Service ended gradually from 1957. It was decided that those born on or after 1 October 1939 would not be required, but conscription continued for those born earlier whose call-up had been delayed for any reason. In November 1960 the last men entered service, as call-ups formally ended on 31 December 1960, and the last National Servicemen left the armed forces in May 1963.

These lads might have done it if they opted to do their National Service before going to medical school. I'm not sure but I think if they waited until they graduated they might just have missed out.

@ivykaty44 definitely those born in 1940 missed National Service by a year or so.

In fact, have we gone backwards, given that HCAs don't have to be qualified as far as I'm aware? yes I think it's gone backwards with a wider distinction between highly qualified nurses with degrees and people who do the messy jobs. A retired nurse friend of mine was very much against this and believed you could tell a great deal about a patient's condition from their body fluids and general chit chat.

My dad was born 1940 in London but didn’t have a choice to do National Service, he would have - at his admittance, jumped at the chance.

Of course @NumbersStation you've got it spot on. There is another scene where someone talks about a baby born as the all clear sounded.

With the introduction of Nurse associates, we are going back to the two tier system. I'm a peadiatric nurse and not one of my colleagues are in favour of it. We will still have to do the things they can't do, like IV's PCA's Ketamine etc. Which will increase our workloads. We'd rather have more fully trained nurses.

@CanIHaveATiaraPlease it is learnt on the job. My training was 50:50 on the job/ classroom.

Oh thank you for that @Toddlerteaplease. There’s nothing like learning while on the job. I learnt more in 2 years as a trainee solicitor than I did at university & law school.

CanIHaveATiaraPlease
I have a friend who worked as an estate agent for 10 years before doing a degree, he said it was “interesting” as he had experience compared with academic knowledge being taught & it didn’t always marry up in principle

I’ve just rewatched the Christmas special at the start of series two. It was lovely - much more care taken around camera shots and mood, atmosphere.

It has the incredibly moving scene of Jenny Lee and Sister Evangelina bathing the old lady from the workhouse, Mrs Jenkins. Oh come, oh come Emmanuel is being sung beautifully and it absolutely typifies the honour and privilege of being able to care for someone who has lost everything. It’s haunting.

It’s not really the same anymore. It’s become as pp said more sanitised.

That scene was lovely @FredaFrogspawn

I loved Sister Evangelina. So brusque but so tender. I miss old CTM.

The early series were so much more emotionally haunting. Stories like Mrs Jenkins, the Swedish girl whose dad had brought her on his boat to sleep with the crew, and various others have stuck with me for years. For all the slightly twee narration, a lot of the stories were harrowing. I just don't feel the same way about the more recent series.

Having watched more of the earlier series - I could remember the characters, they seemed far more fleshed out. The midwives and nuns are almost incidental.