In September 1906, a school for nurses was established at Minor Hospital, with a three-year course of training. The Hospital provided the nursing students with the basic clinical and practical experience considered necessary. There was a minimum of formal classroom instruction. The hospital hired only supervisory nurses, so the student nurses provided the patient care and housekeeping. Probationers, as student nurses were called, worked eight to ten hours a day, seven days a week, and were expected to adhere to a strict code of conduct and obey physicians and supervisors without question. At the end of the program, students received a diploma and were eligible to work as a trained nurse, earning about five dollars a week in 1910.

This photograph depicts the first graduating class from the Minor Private Hospital School for Nurses. The class of 1910 included the following women: Elizabeth Matheson, Lena J. Watt, Imogene Thompson, Elizabeth M. Eby, Maguarite A. Brogan, Idella M. Weston, Edith S. Goodrich, and Lillian V. Thompson. The man at top center of the photograph is Dr. William C. Kantner.