Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-31
One of Expelled Training
Class Members Says
Head Nurse and Cook
Are Tuberculous-Girls
Made Sick.
University Hospital Pupils Re-
duired to Perform Manual
Labor, 1t Is Charged-Su-
perintendent Calls Conta-
gion improbable.

mot only the cook but many Of the
o,her attendants IN Phipps are tubcrcu-
ist.o she said emphatically. What Is
more out on the porch, where we nurses
,rnuld have had to sleep, was a head
purse who has tuberculosis. This meant
that we not only worked among tuber-
oular patients but that we ate food that
Was cooked by one and we slept near
a person infected with It.
DOCTORS ADVISED REFUSAL.
"The action that we took was not high
handed, nor was IL premeditated. 1t was
ths result of advice given us by doctors
m the staff of the hospital and nurses in
outhority. They all considered it dan
gerous to work there.
"Personally, l am not afraid to nurse
n tubercular patient, nor are any of the
o,hor girls, 1 am sure; but we did what
we did because wo believed that on ac-
count of the rundown condition most
~ us are in, due to the hard work of
nursing and due to the positive menial
labor we are required 10 do in the Phipps
institution, that II would not be SAFE
Virtually all of the girls, Miss Noel said,
that came UP from Phippe after their
elrht weeks duty there became Ill. Many
N them she said, showed a tubercular
condition.
The trouble has been brewing a long
time, according to reports, and although
in the past many of the girls that have
been assigned to duty on TINS ward have
gone there under protest, the open break
did not come until last Saturday, when
Miss Noel, with Miss Grace Dawson, of
New Jersey, and Miss Mary Rhodes, of
HollidaysburE. Pr, who were ordered to
Phpps for June and July duty, backed
BY the entire class refused point blank
10 go. Moreover, the senior and junior
classes promised to uphold them.
CLASS ORDERED TO LEAVE.
According to the girls, when the storm
broke the board OF managers and Miss
Smith, the superintendent of nurses,
called meeting. and after that the en-
tire class was told to leave.
Miss Smith acted too soon for the
carrying out of our plans" said Miss
Noel. "All of the seniors and juniors
we're on duty and we were without their
Immediate backing. The result was the
girls of our class who had promised to
stand together lost their nerve. They
cannot be blamed. Many of them lived
as far away as North Carolina They
had no money, and no time to get any.
Miss Smith ordered the entire class to
leave. She said II necessary she would
get in a policeman. The consequence was
that many of the girls asked TO be al
lowed to reconsider
The girls who have remained 'out'' In
addition to the three who were immedi-
ately expelled are Miss Esterbrool, said
TO be the real instigator; Miss Thompson.
Of Curwensvllle, Pa; Miss Woodruff of
Wilmington, and Miss Laschette OF Phil
adelphia.
According to Miss Noel the head nurse
said to be infected with tuberculosis
whose bed was within touching distance
OF those Of some of the girls on duty. mas
since been assigned TO quarters upstairs
on the third floor. But this action, she
said, was taken after the trouble started
In statement issued by Miss Smith,
the superintendent, she said that direct |
contagion between tubercuous patients
and healthy adults is highly improbable,
II not impossible, in a modern hospital,
but many of the girls declared that to
apply the term modern hospital" to the |
Phipps part of the University Hospital is |
simply ridiculous"
In regard tc the hard work required of !
the nurses, Miss Noel stated that scrub |
women could not be asked to do more. In 1
the winter 1t was particularly intolerable, |
she said, because the place was so cold |
that the cloths with which they had TO |
wesh the wood work froze and the hands |
OF the nurses got in a pitlabe condition |
That city investigation of the Phipps |
tuberculosis Institution for the purpose /
of betterlng the condition there will soon /
be made was the belief of the expelled |
nurse