Liz Martin did her nurse training at Northern General hospital in Sheffield, and remained there for her entire careerLiz Martin did her nurse training at Northern General hospital in Sheffield, and remained there for her entire careerObituaryLiz Martin obituaryMy sister Liz Martin, who has died aged 73, was a nurse at the Northern General hospital in Sheffield for 46 years, rising to be a ward sister there before her retirement.
She trained at the Northern General as a state enrolled nurse, later moving up to state registered status there and died in the hospital’s palliative care unit after a long struggle with cancer.
Liz was born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, to Pat Crowson, an office clerk for the gas board, and Rachel (nee Bowie). By the time she had started at Cardinal Hinsley school in Newark she knew she wanted to be a nurse. She joined St John Ambulance as a girl, and her ambition to move into a healthcare role was strengthened when she received an award for a brave but unsuccessful attempt to save the life of a child pulled unconscious from the River Trent.
In 1969, aged 16, she began her training at the Northern General, where she lived in a nurses’ home under strict supervision and nightly curfews.
In the 1990s she did a one-year conversion course to become a state registered nurse, which eventually led to her appointment as a ward sister in 2000 on a medical admissions ward – a high turnover, high stress environment in which she was known for being calm and collected under pressure. In 2005 she became a clinical educator at the hospital, teaching nurses, new doctors and other medical staff.
In her spare time Liz was a keen rambler and an avid reader of detective thrillers. She was also an enthusiastic traveller, visiting Australia (twice), South Africa and Canada, as well as various European countries.
She is survived by her husband, John Martin, whom she met when he was a porter at the Northern General and married in 1973, their daughter, Rachael, two grandsons, a great-granddaughter and five siblings.
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