School of Nursing: Connections

Memories of Eklind Hall

Three Basic 22’s stand in front of Eklind Hall on senior rip day, the last day of clinical training, when physicians and registered nurses at Swedish would cut up parts of the student nurses’ uniforms. Shown here are, from left to right, Pat Miller Priest, Sandy Whitehead Dyer, and Nan Byfield Putnam.

The mornings were a blur. We would leap into our clean student dresses every morning and grab the stiff cap from the mirror where it had dried overnight after being soaked in pure starch. Attaching the cap with pins, we would check our white nylons for straight seams and scan our white shoes for cleanliness (no tennis shoes allowed). Despite the morning frenzy, all of us who lived in Eklind Hall during the 1950’s were trained to be professional nurses and to look that way whenever we were on duty. Although some were more organized and managed to do some of the mundane activities the night before, all of us arrived looking fresh, polished and perfectly groomed, with no make-up (except lipstick), no jewelry, and no nail polish. . . Living together in Eklind Hall for three years developed very close bonds. Nursing students today would have a hard time believing many of the stories that come up during our frequent get-togethers as a class."
- Sandy Whitehead Dyer ’59

"My memories always center around our uniforms. The hospital provided us with laundry service but they didn’t do the caps and collars stiff enough and they were easily wrinkled. So we sent them to a wonderful Chinese laundry on Madison where the owner would do them up so stiff, even waxing them, that we could use them for months. . . We had wonderful nurses’ training at Swedish. Miss Eklind, who was Director of Nurses and CEO of the hospital, met every student for a half-hour every year. We all went in with fear and trepidation, but she was very interested in what we had to say and was always very caring. Nursing students worked split shifts most of the time, from 7-11:30 in the morning, with lunch and classroom instruction following until 2:30, then duty again from 4 until 7 or 7:30. It was a full day, but we had room and board and didn’t have to worry about anything else but learning."
- Barbara Levinski ’53

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