The Nurse first appeared in the lives of the residents of the Street in August 2008 when Audrey Roberts, Bill Webster, Janice Battersby and Roger Stiles went on a booze cruise to France. Audrey and Bill were not getting on at the time and spent most of the trip bickering. Audrey, in the driver's seat, took her eyes off the road in mid-argument and crashed the vehicle. Audrey was the only one with injuries, albeit superficial and the nurse quickly released her from the hospital she had been taken to once she had been examined.
Five months later, the nurse broke the bad news to Janice that Mike Scott, a heart patient at Weatherfield General she had met when carrying out community service for a fraud incident, had died. Mike had collapsed in front of her while chatting in the grounds. The incident caused Janice to reassess her life and she decided to train as a nurse herself.