Alberta's First School of Nursing

The Medicine Hat School of Nursing accepted its first class in 1894. Its new matron was Agnes C. Miller. In those early days, it was believed that the young women would think it was such a good opportunity that to “work gratuitously” in order to receive their training.  Over the years, they received very little remuneration for all the work they did in the hospital. Indeed, during the Depression years, young women did see nursing training as an opportunity to make a little money while getting some training at the same time.

During both the first and second world wars the numbers of applications for the school were down as lucrative war work offered. And after the Second World War, the less traditional work prevailed and open houses were held to try and attract new students. It is interesting that there never were any male students in the whole history of the Medicine Hat School of Nursing.

In those early years, too, there were two, sometimes three, "intakes" throughout the year with each group remaining quite separate and distinct from the others. By 1953, it was down to one intake per year in September.

Students were always required to "live in" and from 1894 to 1904 they lived on the top floor of the hospital. As the number of students grew, they were also housed throughout the hospital, being moved when paying patients needed the beds, and often catching whatever was brought to the hospital by way of infection.

The Women's Hospital Aid Society took over fund-raising for a separate residence, and a new brick building was erected and officially opened in 1905. It had nine bedrooms, a parlour-library and a kitchen. It was called the Victoria Nurses' Home in honour of Queen Victoria who had died in 1901.

This new building became too small quite quickly and after shoe-horning one or two more in for a while, an addition was built in 1912, another in 1919, and again in1930. In the late 1940s, students were accommodated in the maternity hospital and in 1949 a house across the street from the main hospital was leased for five years as the "Nurses' Annex."