The author was born in Leipzig Germany in 1936. She first trained as a children's nurse in West Berlin and, after bringing up three children, qualified as a State Enrolled Nurse at Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge in 1976. She has held her present post as an anaesthetic room nurse in the Ear Nose and Throat operating theatre of Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge for 3 years. The paper analyses the task of the anaesthetic room nurse in supporting the anaesthetist both physically and psychologically.