Oral History Gallery

Equipment ashore 6 - Conforming bandages

Claire Taylor

Service: 1968 - 1996

Rate: Captain

Claire Taylor trained as a State Registered Nurse and State Certified Midwife before joining the QARNNS (Queen Alexandra Royal Naval Nursing Service) in April 1967.Â She worked as a midwife at Royal Naval Hospital M'Tarfa in Malta, RNH Haslar and HMS Ganges until in 1973 she left the service to work in Papua New Guinea before rejoining in April 1975.Â On rejoining she became a Sister Tutor, prior to undertaking a number of teaching posts primarily at RN Medical Services School Haslar.Â In 1987 she was appointed to the new Tri-Service body at MoD in London and after that Deputy Matron at RNMSS Haslar before becoming Deputy Matron-in-Chief in London during the Gulf War.Â Finally, in February 1994 she was appointed Matron-in-Chief, together with the post (in 1996) of Tri-Service Director of Nurse Education.Â

What difference did conforming bandages make to nurses work?Â Listen to Claire's experience.

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Extract Text (Duration 1.17)

I can remember a rep coming round with conforming bandages, which in the old days, when you had cotton bandages rather than crepe bandages, there was no give in them and so you actually had to apply a bandage to any limb or any area of the body in a specific way so that the bandage didn't drop off.Â And there are certain areas of the male anatomy that very often required dressings and it was very difficult to apply something that was comfortable, and I can remember the rep came with a conforming bandage which is sort of a stretchable one that actually, hmmm... because of how it's made it doesn't fall off and you don't actually have to twist or layer the bandage as you would an ordinary cotton one.Â So that was... saved a lot of time.