The recovery room, in which patients recover from a surgical operation. Soft-ground etching and aquatint by Virginia Powell, ca. 1995.

Virginia Powell

Observed at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Fulham Road, London. A big room, with the atrium of the hospital in the background. The patients are wheeled in here from the theatre. The nuses in recovery look after the patients for about half an hour usually; sometimes the patients have recovered consciousness before leaving the theatre. One of the patients has an oxygen mask. At the far end of the ward is the children's recovery area, where parents are admitted. After recovery, the nurses ring the ward sisters to have the patients taken back to the ward. The uniforms of the recovery nurses used to be white, as shown, but shortly afterwards changed to grey-green. Copyright The Wellcome Trust