Eileen Hodgson from Maple Orthopaedics at the Cumberland Infirmary will be retiring on the 14th June after 51 years service. She started her career as a cadet at aged 16 and then went on to be a successful enrolled nurse. Eileen has worked in Scheme 1, Brampton Cottage Hospital, Longtown TB hospital and Strathclyde House, and joined the Orthopaedic unit in the 1990s; where she was one of the first to convert to a registered nurse working on the old Princess Louise team.
Eileen has seen a lot of change in orthopaedics in electives where patients with joint replacements used to take 14 days until they were discharged - now she has managed to discharge patients on day zero. In trauma when she began orthopaedic patients, nursing was very different. Patients were on traction for 12 weeks and were allowed a beer on prescription and a cigarette after each meal; now our trauma patients are operated on and they are up and about within a day.
The orthopaedic team said, "Eileen has touched so many lives through her years with her kind and generous heart, her humour, she just knows what to unstintingly say. Team Orthopaedics is so proud of Eileen’s achievements, we wish her well and hope to see her on a odd bank shift. We thank her for all her years’ service."
Eileen said "I have throughly enjoyed my nursing career, being able to care for patients, being able to reassure them and build trust with them while they are in hospital. I love the people i work with. It is a team thing and we can't do it without each other, that's what makes it work."