Five decades at Bourn Hall – friendship and family

Bourn Hall is now in its fifth decade and one of our nurses, Julie Robinson, who started working at Bourn Hall Cambridge in 1989, wanted to share her story of fertility nursing at Bourn Hall across five decades.

Shared bond

In the 1980s, all our female patients were inpatients, requiring them to stay overnight for a few days; this meant we got to know them really well and friendships developed. There was such a sense of family and community and I still remember some patients from those early days and wonder how they are now.

Many of those patients were successful in their treatments and their children will now be in their 30s. At that time, I remember the success rate was about 20%, which felt hugely exciting and gave couples real hope of having their own child. Nowadays our success rate is over 50% so we have come a long way in this time.

Tea in china cups 

One of my fondest memories of the 1980s and early 1990s is the way we looked after our patients on the day of their embryo transfer. This day was the absolute highpoint of their fertility journey. As a ward nurse, I would take a patient down to theatre, with all of us feeling such a sense of excitement and anticipation. When a patient returned from theatre, wheeled back on the hospital bed, I would tip the bed so that it was at an angle with her legs elevated. We would then bring her a tray with pots of tea and china cups and then she would lie in that position for two hours! On the ward, there would often be up to five patients in the same room, all chatting excitedly, sharing their hopes and dreams together. It was a special time indeed and I felt honoured and privileged to be part of their story.

Welcomed back to the family

During the 1990s I took a few years off to have my two sons, but when my youngest started school, I returned to the Bourn Hall family. They welcomed me back and I could work flexible hours as a Bank Nurse. By this time, patients did not stay overnight any more, as all treatments were done now as outpatients.

Many advances in treatment

As I continued working as a Fertility Nurse Specialist over the years, and into the 2000s, there were many changes and developments, including ICSI, treatment for spinally injured men, treatment for single women and same-sex couples, transgender patients, and new surgical advancements for sperm retrieval. There have been many developments and improvements in the embryology techniques, such as blastocyst culture and freezing embryos.

Patients are at the heart of everything

Although there have been numerous advances in the field of reproductive medicine, for me, looking after our patients has been the heart and soul of everything I do. Treating every patient as an individual has always been, and still remains, the focus of my nursing. My passion for supporting patients throughout their fertility journey has been my life’s vocation, and I am so privileged to have nursed at Bourn Hall over these five decades.

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