New staff member, Maggie Field, wanted to care for people even as a small child.  But when she left school in the 1960s, she didn’t have the qualifications she needed to train as a registered general nurse.  So how did she end up nursing at Barrowhill Hall?

 “I started out as a secretary,” remembers Maggie, who joined our team in January 2017.

 “It took me abroad, as I had to move to Bahrain when I worked for an international bank, but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do.  I’d wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl and I decided to take the plunge and re-train when I was 35 – and had three children!”

Maggie did an access course before starting her nursing studies at Staffordshire University.  She would sit with the children around the kitchen table and they would all do their homework together.

After having another baby, she finally stared nursing in a care home before she moved to the coronary care unit at the then North Staffordshire Hospital.

“I didn’t realise I already knew the manager, Martin, when I started here,” said Maggie, “but we used to both work in the cardiology department at the hospital.  And I’d worked with Rhee, the deputy manager, so I found it easy to settle in.”

Maggie’s daughter, Ruth, also visits Barrowhill Hall as a vintage singer, entertaining the residents once a month with songs from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

Maggie is finding her new role challenging but hugely rewarding.

“Just getting that brief moment of connection with someone is fantastic,” she said.  “One lady used to be an auxiliary at the hospital and she’s fascinated with my fob watch.  She can’t chat about her career but she can respond to my jokes and she laughs and laughs.  That’s wonderful.”