After years of doing shift work, Christine said she now feels permanently jet lagged. She is enjoying having her weekends free and recently hosted her first family Christmas.

"Prior to that I would have to go to another family member's for Christmas because I would be coming from a shift, or would have to leave early to go to the hospital," she said.

Christine became a nurse in 1972 and started out in Grafton before transferring to the Hastings District Hospital.

Christine chose the nurse profession to support her baby daughter.

"Those were the days where if women were married they weren't expected to work," she said.

Christine said she enjoyed being a nurse because no two days were ever the same.

The fellow nurses at the hospital were Christine's closest confidants.

"We worked as a team and if there was a big night on the ward no one would leave because you all helped one another," she said.

Christine said the hospital could benefit from a boost of staff members, to ease pressure on the wards.

Unfortunately nurses, Christine said are exposed to daily verbal abuse and sometimes physical assaults.

However Christine noted a lot of positives about the job where she enjoyed treating the whole person.

"You get to know about their love lives, spouses, children and their whole world," she said.

Christine said it's rewarding making someone's bad day a little bit better.

November 9 marks 25 years since the Hastings District Hospital closed its doors. There is a reunion event on at Rydges from 6pm which is open to all ex-staff, doctors, volunteers and friends.

Tickets are $50 and available through the HDH Reunion 2019 Facebook page.

For more information please call Karen Slater on 0408 984 864.