District nurse

the long version

Born in Belfast, Patricia Jordan left for England to train as a nurse in the 1940s and District nurse is her moving and humorous account of life as a visiting nurse in a small English town. She leaves behind a close-knit family and a failed romance in Ireland to begin training in Barnet and Middlesex. She early on treats a patient who eventually becomes her husband and means that she accepts a job in the north of England that takes her first by bicycle and then in an unreliable little car, into the homes of the people who need her care. In District nurse, she brings to life everyone she encounters, from the doctors and other nurses to the diverse and always compelling patients. It is a captivating personal account of a life spent helping others.