Date of release: 19 April 2023
A dedicated Nurse Practitioner has retired after nearly a quarter of a century of service with the NHS, revealing how her father’s death proved a career-changing moment.
Lynda Morgans, Sister and Out Of Hours Nurse Practitioner in Medicine at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT), officially hung up her uniform on 31 March 2023 after 24 years’ service with the organisation, all at New Cross Hospital, where she trained.
Her lightbulb moment came in 1995 as she watched her dad Bryn Morgans die of prostate cancer at Compton Hospice, now Compton Care, part of RWT.
“As a child I’d always wanted to become a nurse but it never happened,” said Lynda, 70, who had spent her previous working life in the secretarial and finance sector.
“Then during my dad’s last six weeks of life I spent every day with him and if it wasn’t for the fact that he was dying, I’d have loved every minute of it. It made me pull my socks up, grow up and do something which I felt was more useful.”
After qualifying as a Registered Nurse in 1999, Lynda started her career on Ward D17, specialising in medical and gastroenterology nursing, progressing to what was her long-term role in 2004.
The unsociable nature of Out of Hours Practitioner work – 5pm-7am – and widow Lynda not having family meant she often worked both weekend shifts of 9pm-7am and 4pm-2am.
She continued to do this until her retirement. “Working out of hours makes you a very tight team,” she said. “You get to spend time with the doctors and you have more time to spend with the patients when they are feeling low and the nurses are so busy.
“A lot of my colleagues liked to have weekends free to spend time with their families but I was quite happy to work weekends so I could have time off during the week,” added Lynda, who lost partner Peter in 2009 suddenly to cancer after recovering from the disease herself a year earlier.
“We have a WhatsApp group for retired staff and those who have left and we arrange to see each other two or three times a year.”
Deborah Marshall-Edwards, Senior Sister, Out of Hours Nurse Practitioners, said: “Sister Morgans is a familiar face across the medical wards and has been dedicated to her work as a nurse, always ensuring her patients are meticulously looked after ensuring high standards of care.
“The Out Of Hours Practitioners and the medical wards are going to greatly miss her and we would like to take this opportunity to wish her a happy and healthy retirement, and thank her for her service to the team and the Trust.”
Now she’s retired, Lynda intends to spend more of her time watching amateur dramatics and, as a member of the National Trust and English Heritage, walking around stately homes with her friends.
She also intends to visit her brother and his family in Texas who she hasn’t seen since 2019 because of COVID-19.
Notes to Editors
- For more information, please contact Tim Nash on 07714 741097 or email tim.nash2@nhs.net
