NOSTALGIA: Student nurses qualify at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital in 1994

They were the first to qualify at the hospital on a ‘Project 2000’ course run by the Mid Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery.

However at the time, one of the nurses, Bev Parker, told the Standard: “There are no jobs available at Pilgrim at the moment. Everybody’s looking at nursing homes, bank nursing and agency nursing.

“It’s very disheartening.”

Mrs Parker explained that the Project 2000 course was unlike the traditional style of training where students were based on wards.

For the first 18 months, students spent their time in the classroom – and then, during the second half of the course, they spent an increasing amount of time on the wards.

Though there were no jobs at the hospital for the newly qualified nurses, there was something called ‘professional start’ which offered those who gain a place two shifts per work for a six-month period.