• HOME
• THE LANGUAGE OF MADNESS
• THE ASYLUM
• • Asylum Design
  • Patient Buildings
• SOCIETY
• • Urban & Rural Life
  • Class & Gender
  • The Hysterical Female
  • The Evils of "Self-Abuse"
  • Family
  • Visitors
• LEGISLATION
• • Legislative Influence
  • Origins of Legislation and the Criminality of Insanity
  • Teenaged Years: Marked Custody Transition
  • Turn of the Century: Voluntary Admissions
  • Updated Act: The Mental Hospital Act
• SUPERINTENDANTS
• STAFF
• • Working at the LAI
  • Hiring Practices
  • Rules for Employees
  • Employee Roles in Moral Therapy
  • Doctors at LAI
  • Doctor Connections to UWO
  • Training School for Nurses
  • Attendants
  • General Staff
• PATIENT PERSPECTIVES
• • Introduction
  • Patient Art
  • Patient Letters
  • Their Voice
• MEDICAL TREATMENTS
• • Medical Treatment Introduction
  • Use of Restraints
  • Drug and Alcohol
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Female Surgeries
  • Neurosyphilis
  • Shock Therapy
  • Lobotomies
• MORAL THERAPY
• • Moral Therapy Introduction
  • Labour
  • Amusements
  • Diet
  • Religion
• THE WORLD WARS
• • Before the First World War
  • During the First World War
  • After the First World War
  • The First World War and the LAI
  • First World War Veterans at the LAI
  • The Second World War
• MEMORIES OF RMHCL
• • Introduction
  • Their Memories

Application

Training School for Nurses |  Application |  Training |  Graduation
Accommodation and Recreation |  The Faculty of Nursing at UWO

The Training School for Nurses had strict application requirements to ensure the applicants' high quality. Applicants had to be between 18 to 30 years old and at least 5'4" tall. Two years of high school education was needed; however, undergraduate students who had previous training in other medical institutes were usually not considered to avoid instruction confusion. In addition, young girls were generally advised to apply to a training school close to home in order to cut costs, as well as to be available to their family.

The formal application package contained an application form, a statement letter, an education form and a health certificate either from family physician or hospital. When admitted to the School, all the students received inoculations against diphtheria, and scarlet and typhoid fevers, and were given a complete physical and mental health examinations. Those students who had histories of worry, anxiety, "blues," phobias, or other symptoms concerning mental health were kept under observation.

Applicant shortage had always been a problem to the School. The high application standard partly explained the reason. And due to the wartime condition both in World War I and II, many girls qualified for nursing went to war industry instead, causing a provincial applicant shortage. In 1944, Dr. George. H. Stevenson, Medical Superintendent, suspended the three-year course in nursing, and concentrated on a new three-month program, which was aimed at instructing student nurses from general hospitals in psychiatric training. This psychiatric training within the asylum context was made compulsory for all nurses in September 1951.