TWO Somerset nurses who trained together 30 years ago have been reunited and are now working in the same hospital.

Alison Dyett and Juliet Neilson first met at the School of Nursing at Winchester and Basingstoke when they were training for their nursing qualification in 1989.

They were reunited earlier this year after Alison moved to Burnham-on-Sea to take up the role of team leader in the pre-op assessment unit at Weston General Hospital which Juliet from Chilton Trinity suggested she apply for.

When Alison and Juliet, who is now deputy director of nursing, quality and safety at Weston, met Juliet’s mother said Alison looked like ‘a nice girl’ and the pair may end up sharing a room.

The two talented nurses spent three years living together while training in Winchester and said they remember many different practices of caring for patients and the different uniforms they had to wear including capes and white hats.

Alison and Juliet were in a class of 13 students when they trained to be nurses in 1989 and said their class was like a little family.

Speaking about her training Juliet, said: “After a late shift we would talk through our experiences of the shifts, the highs and lows, and then watch the new series of Casualty on the television to see if the drama represented the reality…it did not.”

Alison and Juliet were reunited in a side room in the pre-op department at Weston General Hospital last week and reminisced about their training and spoke about what they had been up to since they qualified as nurses.

After qualifying, Juliet worked on a medical ward and then moved into cardiothoracic at Southampton General Hospital, caring for patients with conditions affecting the heart and lungs.

She went on to become the head of patient experience and then after 22 years, she moved to the role of head of nursing for surgery at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.

But Alison’s journey took a different path.

She spent three years travelling and doing voluntary work, including volunteering in Calcutta and then returned to Winchester and worked as a nurse in general surgery.

She then moved London where she spent 20 years working on surgical wards and in 2010, she became the pre-op manager at Lewisham Hospital.

30 years on and Alison and Juliet said they truly believe nursing is a vocation and urged nurses to ‘never lose sight’ of the reason they entered the profession.

They said: “Enjoy every minute, it’s hard work, at times frustrating but so rewarding and such an honour to be part of patients’ lives, sometimes when they are at their most vulnerable.”