Selfridges, Sydney Opera House and a convent: nurse tells of colourful career in new book

Registered nurse Maggie Groff has worn many hats throughout her career, including staff nurse, island nurse and industrial nurse. She now wears another: award-winning author.

Groff has penned a new book called Not Your Average Nurse, which explores the true story of her career spanning 1970s London to outback Australia.

The book charts her experiences as a student nurse at London’s King’s College Hospital and her time working in an array of settings, including Switzerland and Sydney.

Nursing Review sat down with Groff to discuss the stories she was excited to share in the book and the times when she doubted nursing was the right career for her.

In the interview, Groff recounts working as an in-house nurse for high-end department store Selfridges, and being there on the same day an IRA car bomb went off on the street outside; the lessons she learned after taking up night duty in a convent of nuns; being taken aback by the working conditions for nurses in Australia in 1977; and tending to varied and sometimes odd health issues at Sydney Opera House.

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