Hartlepool nurse calls time on 'temporary' job after 33 years

Outpatients sister and nurse Amanda Southcott started at what was then North Tees General Hospital on a temporary contract in 1988 – but spent last week saying her goodbyes to colleagues after three decades working in both North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust’s hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton.

Amanda, 60, said: “I always wanted to be a nurse. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do from the age of five – just look after people.

“The thing I’m going to miss the most is the patients.”

After semi-retiring five years ago, Amanda carried on at the trust in a flexible role as both a staff nurse and a sister.

Colleagues say she is “an absolute pleasure” to work with and Amanda said has seen many changes over the last 33 years.

She added: “I’ve spent a lot of time at work over my life. Your colleagues become almost like your second family and I’ll miss them all very much.”

Amanda says she is now looking forward to helping out with her husband and son’s family marine business, North East Safety Boats, in her retirement.

She began her career in 1979 as a student nurse at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, and soon after met her husband John.

They married in 1981 and continued in nursing until John’s work took the couple to Germany in 1983, where both their children, Gareth and Charlotte, were born.

In 1988, the family came home and Amanda returned to her love of nursing – and she took on that “temporary” job.

With her free time, she is planning to keep busy by helping to plan and organise her daughter’s wedding in June.

Jackie Devine is the sister in the outpatients department at the University Hospital of North Tees and a close colleague of Amanda’s.

She said: “Amanda has been a very hard working and valued staff member. It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside her and we are all going to miss her.”