Wairarapa Midweek Wed 4th Dec

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Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2019

INSIDE: New photograph printing ser vice for Feather ston P5

P3

Stepping up this Christmas ARE YOU A VIP CUSTOMER? Read ‘Garden Yarn’ on Page 9 to find out if you’re one of our

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50 years breaking stereotypes Hayley Gastmeier

Alan De La Mare, of Masterton, has written a book about his 50-year career as a nurse. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED

Alan De La Mare had worked 32 jobs before finally finding his calling as a nurse at age 22. Since then, he has enjoyed a varied 50-year career in a profession that wasn’t quite ready for men when he entered into it. “The attitude at the time was it was a women’s profession – we were an anomaly, there was no place for us there.” This outdated viewpoint has inspired the title of Alan’s newly published book, Hands behind your back – just watch! Life as a male nurse. The book details his experiences in the health sector, with short stories and an overarching narrative. Now 72, Alan, who moved to Wairarapa two years ago, said becoming a nurse wasn’t his idea. “I was working as a care assistant at Hutt Hospital and there was a phone call to the ward asking me to go down and see the matron. “At the time, the matron was the goddess of the hospital – they had total

Alan De La Mare giving a speech at his 1972 graduation from the Hutt Hospital School of Nursing.

control, and everybody bowed and scraped – it was so hierarchal it wasn’t funny. “I fronted up to her. “The Wellington matron had told the Hutt matron that they had a male nurse starting and Hutt wanted to beat this [and get a male nurse first].” The matron said Alan was the man for the job, and in 1972, after starting hospital-based training in 1969, he graduated from the Hutt Hospital School of Nursing. Alan said he had been the first male nurse to train in the Wellington region in 27 years. Much of his time nursing has been spent working in emergency

departments (ED). But Alan’s career has been very diverse. He was a field medic in the territorials for 13 years, and he worked at Avalon Studios on the set of Worzel Gummidge as a first aider and location assistant, as well as a stand-in for Jon Pertwee who starred in the programme’s title role. “They utilised me for all they could. I got on screen a couple of times – not that you’d know it – just my hands and back. “After that, I went to work at the Porirua assembly plant for Mitsubishi Motors as an industrial nurse.” He said it was a “reactive role”, treating injuries on site. This role eventually evolved into health and safety and implementing processes that prevented injuries. Alan said at one point during his career he got close to “burn out” so he took a break from the health sector to drive haulage trucks, and then vans that had been specialised for children in wheelchairs. “Then I went back nursing. I thought, ‘I better finish my working life in the career that I like’.” He spent about 10 years working in Wellington Hospital ED, before moving to Masterton in 2017 with his partner. Now, he works casual hours at Wairarapa Hospital, both in ED and in patient transfers. Continued on page 3

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