Vancouver’ student nurses live under de- “) plorable conditions. Support must be mobi- lized in the coming plebiscite to ensure : Pee dern® accommodation and training ‘| facilities. : | 3 “fi By Minerva Cooper ») ‘HESE are days when we begin to make our plans for a the future. They should be big plans, backed up by 29) Some of our plans must be for ise ublic buildings which will fill fifommunity needs, provide con- Y que rehitecture SiGuction jobs and give us an in keeping with sim ancouver’s peerless setting. e@ The construction of a new meeurse’s residence and training lie sntre is ram f $1,000,000. one project which rnould have been undertaken mg ago. Recently. a delegation ‘com the Hospital Board re- fsived the assurance that the rovincial government would be apply $500,000 if the burgesses f Vancouver endorsed a by- ‘ow authorizing the expenditure the Although non-partisan maeity council is displaying its tau uStomary reluctance to give a im togressive lead, there is every ism idication that the construction VE ee jae eyond the city of Vancouver, Vi j@iearing on the =a new nurses’ home and raining centre will be a big is- ons. Its significance extends owever, for it has important standard of ealth services for the entire ua) TOvince and is a-matter which meaerits the investigation of @ very forward-looking citizen. ja) Here and now [ would like to ay tribute to the work of Eli- or Palisser,; Director of Nurs- fe 2g at Vancouver General Hos- jm ital who welcomes visitors to ;eene Nurses? Home and encour- jayges the general public to take m@ interest in its institutions. the has a public spirited ap- roach to her work and in the laterest of the community as a i , iS leading a crusade to "yin the conditions most fayvor- “S ble to the health and achieve- Paent of young women who have mtered one of the noblest of iofessions. = I shared the opinion general © Vancouver that conditions if or student nurses were far Tom satisfactory, but I did not fealize how serious the situa- Sion really was till I visited heir present living quarters a new weeks ago. I am going to eseribe in some detail what I liscovered. y e@ “ A WRST of all, to speak of a murses home in the singular S to give an incorrect picture. Three hundred and twenty turses are housed in five sepa- ge in the coming civic elec— ne unity and organization that will make them come true, pig plans in keeping with the rich promise of a people’s m@ar, and all of the immense possibilities for development terising out of United Nations le Z : [:rengthened in the years to come. unity maintained and rate buildings, and much time is spent travelling to and from the main supervision centre, at which they have. occasion to re- port frequently. Since groups of students enter and leave the hospital twice a year, there is an incessant moving of girls and their belongings from building to building. Scattered accommodation requires a larg- er number of personnel, creates difficulties, both in administra- tion and supervision and is wasteful of time, energy and money. The nature of the accommo- dation however, is a cause for much greater concern. One hundred and seventy students live in three buildings, one properly called the “old home” built in 1907 and two old uni- versity shacks abandoned for educational purposes in 1925, following a public demonstra- tion by the university students, backed by the public, because they were unfit for class-rooms. Into these quarters our stu- dent nurses have been crowded, living from two to ten in a room, and denied any real pri- vacy. Bath and toilet facilities are inadequate, clothes cup- board space very limited, the dining room is continually over- erowded and there is no sepa- rate accommodation c night nurses can sleep undis- turbed. oe There are no laundry facili- ties other than for uniforms, and girls wash their clothes in the basins, and must hang: them in their rooms to dry, further detracting from surroundings already made disimal by old dressers, old iron beds, and bare, unpainted floors. One of the buildings has all the cheer- fulness of a prison cell, for on the ground floor, lower window panes are covered with paint and iron screening, intended as a protection against curious eyes, but creating an oppressive shut-in atmosphere which even the bravest girls must some- times find unendurable. There are no recreational fa- cilities, either inside or outside, with the exception of one large room in the basement of one of the buildings. Except for one large open lounge, there are no reception rooms where students may receive their friends or re- where: latives. There is one small library for three hundred and twenty students, no space for quiet study, and glaring light arrangements, exceeding ly harmful to the eyes, in the bed rooms where most of the study- ing is done. It is a credit to the staff of the residence, misnamed “homes”, that they have been able te keep these old, poorly eonstructed, dust-laden “build- ings so clean. An -interesting: commentary on the problems with which the staff have to contend is the conversation we had with the house-keeper in one of the buildings as we were leaving. : “Do you know where we could get a cat?” she said. “The other one has gone away and mice are over-runnings: the buildins. They are getting into the drawers where the girls keep their clothes. One of the girls brought me garments that were badly chewed. We can’t keep them out.’ 5 : The three oldest buildings into which one hundred and seventy girls are crowded, would burn like dry and dusty Student Nurses’ Homes - kindling. Equipped only with wooden fire-esecapes, they are located very close to old dilapi- dated buildings, one of which is a paint and carpenter shop, — filled with inflammable ma- terials. They are deadly fire- traps, a nightly threat to the safety of tired student nurses, who sleep heavily after arduous days. These barn-like buildings, two of them without founda- tions, with saggine creaky, bare, unpainted floors, leaky roofs and cheap equipment— with ugly, dark, dreary in- ‘teriors full of old and musty smells in damp weather, hot in summer and sometimes cold in winter—are a disgrace to a modern city like Vancouver and a eruel strain on some of our finest young women. They come from every part of the province, with that shining eagerness and ambition which it is criminal to destroy. They may not complain much, they may shrug their shoulders, gxin sturdily, and say “We can take it.’ But they shouldn’t have to take it. Pictured above is one of the ancient and dilapi- tated buildings at present housing our student nurses in Vancouver, escapes. note the wooden fire- ‘To remain MINERVA COOPER LPP provincial secretary and federal candidate for Van- couver Burrard. To quote Miss Palisser in her brief to the hospital board: “The effect of living in such slumlike dwellings can only be detrimental and degrading, and instead of opportunity being taken for gaining dignity, poise and: self-confidence, as ‘well as health and learning, develop- ment as future citizens can only be retarded in such surround- ings.” What Vancouver needs is a modern fire-proof building which will provide living ac= commodation, recreational and educational facilities under one roof, for approximately four hundred nurses. It is a question affecting the welfare of the entire province. .With the im- plementation of health insur- ance, and the establishment of a school of medicine at the Uni- versity, facilities will have to be greatly extended. : An increase in hospital and clinical accommodation must form part of the perspective of British Columbia’s future de- velopment. We believe that the deter- mination of all democratic peo- ple that there shall be full em- ployment and prosperity in the peace. will find organized ex- pression in the development of: great new industries and the opening -of new channels of trade to Eurone and the Orient. We believe that modern facili- ties for the training and ac- commodation of our student nurses will form an essential part of the expanding health services required in a great Pa- cific port serving flourishing industries. e KE HAYE tolerated a dis- ’ sraceful state of affairs too long, and it must be said that the main responsibility rests on our non-partisan. city council. They haye never placed the issue squarely before the peo- ple, but have hidden behind the excuse that there was no money. silent is to ac- euiesce. Support must be mobi- lized for a “yes’ vote on the by- law. The time has come when citizens must demand that the city couneil act or better still replace them with forward- looking. men and women who will provide civic administra- tion that can open the way to Vancouver’s great future.