Nursing School Will Close

ST. EUGENE’S NURSING SCHOOL WILL CLOSE. -  Operated Since 1910; High Costs and Low Turnover Causes Decision.

            Heavy overhead charges for staff and specialist instructors, coupled with decreasing recruitments for nursing training will force the closure of St. Eugene’s Training School for Nurses here within a year, as classes now in session complete courses or are transferred to other training points.

            So say Sisters of Charity of Providence who have operated the School since 1910, and graduated trained nurses continuously since 1913, in conjunction with St. Eugene’s Hospital.

            Since the first graduation then, a total of 164 nurses have been trained.  Divided by years of operation, this total resolves into an average of 4.7 nurses graduated per year.  With present high salary costs for instructors, coupled with a shortage of these, and considering that much larger classes could be handled even by the minimum staff, operation on the present per student basis has become a practical and economic impossibility, it is stated.

            The increasingly high instructional demands mean high monthly salaries for a staff personnel of four, if the school is to continue.  This financial load it would be absurd to carry, it is considered, with the small recruitment of trainee personnel coming forward.

            Three classes at present training, junior, intermediate and senior, together only number 21 students.  Seniors will graduate next spring, four juniors will transfer next month to Vancouver, or to Alberta points if they wish, leaving intermediates, who will receive more intensive training when other class instruction is eliminated, and who will therefore complete their course ahead of the usual date.

            Nursing Aide training will continue, with instruction consisting of a series of lectures on minor procedure, bedside care and allied subjects.  Trainees emerging from this course will assist in staffing wards under supervision of graduate nurses, it is expected.  Entrants are required to have Grade 10 or higher education, and to be of age 18 or over.  A small class is under instruction at present, with the School Instructress and Superintendent, Sister Denise Marguerite, in charge.