Articles THE EAGLE
meeting all new students individually to answer concerns, ease potential problems and organise registration with a Cambridge GP. Every year some of the new students are extremely anxious or homesick, and completely convinced that they are not clever enough to have been accepted on their own merits but are only here through some sort of clerical error. Time taken at the beginning to listen, talk and generally pay attention to concerns really does help the induction process and helps to prevent small problems developing into enormous ones later.
The wonderful thing about college nursing is that there is no such thing as a typical day. I sometimes wonder if, after all this time, there is somewhere a conspiracy to see whether someone can bring me something new, and I am delighted to say that even after all this time, it is still possible! This has been a fabulous job, probably the best nursing job in the world, and to all those Johnians whom I have cared for, advised or generally told off, many thanks indeed! Maggie Hartley *The Pig Club was formed during the Second World War as part of an initiative by which pigs could be reared by groups of people who could then enjoy the products of the animal without passing them over to the government. When the original purpose was no longer necessary, it was decided to continue the Club as a social venue for the officers of the College and senior staff to meet together.
johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Page 19
ARTICLES
The start of term is followed fast by Freshers’ flu, which needless to say isn’t influenza at all but a minor viral illness from which all students think they are going to die. I usually tell them it is minor, but then make them feel a bit more cared for by saying that the definition of a minor illness is one that is happening to someone else. Academic work gets going pretty much straightaway, bringing its own anxieties, which for some feel almost insurmountable. In October I hold flu jab sessions for staff and Fellows, while seeing people with illnesses resulting from travel, abject drunkenness, the excesses of daily life and of course sports injuries. After Christmas there are often broken hearts following break-ups with partners over the holiday or difficulties at home following fallings-out with parents, and then lots of gloom and low mood – ‘Februaryishness’ – with concentration and motivation difficulties. Then around Easter there are academic pressures to get dissertations and other such burdens handed in, and I try to get students organised with travel vaccination schedules ready for summer travelling. This gets eclipsed by stress and worry in the run-up to exams, and the minute the exams are over there is a return to abject drunkenness and emergency contraception. Mixed in with this little lot, there are acute illnesses such as meningitis, outbreaks of mumps, norovirus or similar.