Presbyterian School of Nursing Student Influenza 1918 records

Training schools for nurses were always attached to hospitals. In an apprenticeship that provided hospitals with free labor, student nurses received on the job experience by caring for hospital patients while also attending various lectures on procedures, medications, and nursing care. When influenza spread throughout the country in 1918, nursing students were on the frontlines caring for desperately ill patients. These students often fell ill themselves and saw fellow students get sick and even die, from the influenza.

This selection of records documents the Presbyterian Hospital Training School for Nurses’ student ledgers to highlight the number of students caring for patients, how many contracted influenza, how many were sick from other ailments or were healthy, and how many died.