I love being outside. You see the deer coming past. There’s squirrels, sometimes there’s a couple of ducks that come in, rabbits. And then you get to see like all the flowers that are growing and the trees and with their apples hanging from them and it’s quiet. It’s just full green. It’s just quiet and when you’ve been in a busy ward, sometimes it’s just nice to come out and take five minutes to yourself.”

Listen to Sharon talking about their Haven

Summary transcript of audio

I’m Sharon Warrington, I’m 57 year-old. I’ve worked in the Royal Edinburgh for nearly 21 years as a domestic. I’ve been in probably every ward in the hospital at one point. I’m now working in Blackfoot IPCU, where I’ve been for the past five years.

But I love my job, absolutely love my job, but before I worked in the hospital, never ever thought I would do cleaning. I done two years in a sports shop, but before that, I worked 21 years in a factory making sportswear. And that shut down. And then my mum and my auntie worked here and they says to me ‘come and work in here’ and I’m like, ah I don’t want to be a cleaner, I never thought of being a cleaner, but I came and I’m still here and I wouldnae think about anywhere else I would want to be. I love it here. Love the camaraderie we get with the patients and the staff, I love the fact that you see them getting better. Yeah, sometimes you see the same people coming in and out but it’s nice to see them coming in and getting better. But yeah, I like my job.

We do have a tea room where we go for our lunch, but if I was a say about my wee haven, outside the hospital, inside the hospital grounds, I’d have to say just at the back of the Royal Edinburgh buildings. There’s an orchard. So it’s all fruit trees and there’s a path that goes through it. Visitors and the public are allowed to walk through it.  There’s a big walkway that comes around. On a weekend. I do a master clean, so it means I’m out in the grounds on a Saturday morning for six hours, and I just love it. I love being outside. You see the deer coming past. There’s squirrels, sometimes there’s a couple of ducks that come in, rabbits.  And then you get to see like all the flowers that are growing and the trees and with their apples hanging from them, and it’s quiet. It’s just full green. It’s just quiet and when you’ve been in a busy ward, sometimes it’s nice just to come out and take five minutes to yourself. Usually, I do two long days a week, so I finish at 3 o’clock and start my next shift at 4. So this is usually where I would come and sit for my break, just to get a bit of quiet time away from the ward before you go back into it.

Yeah, there’s a family of deer.  They’re usually over by, but this they come right up to the windows of the wards.

You feel like you’ve had a break when you’re out here because if you sat on the ward, there’s somebody always knocking the door. So at least if you come out here, you feel like you’ve actually had a break.