Book 1, by Helen Wells
Illustrated by Ralph Crosby Smith,
revision (1964) illustrated by Frank Vaughn
Grosset & Dunlap, 1943
Cherry wanted a profession of her own. More than that, she wanted to do vital work, work that the world urgently needs. She honest-to-goodness cared about people and she wanted to help them on a grand and practical scale. But did she have all that it takes to be a nurse? Could her dreams survive three stern years of training? Well, she would learn the answer very soon.
--From Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, p. 6
Eighteen-year-old Cherry Ames takes the first steps on the road to a nursing career as she begins three years of training at Spencer Hospital.
Chapter 1: Cherry Starts Out
Inspired by doctor-researcher Dr. Joe, eighteen-year-old Cherry Ames says goodbye to her family and her home in Hilton, Illinois, as she embarks on three years of training at Spencer Hospital School of Nursing.
Who really deserves the credit for setting Cherry on the path to nursing? Was it Dr. Joe or a fetching feline? Click here to read more!
Chapter 2: New Faces
Cherry arrives at Spencer, where young Dr. Jim Clayton helps her find the Training School Office. Later, she meets Ann Evans, Gwen Jones, and some of her other classmates; attends Miss Reamer's orientation lecture; and has her first run-in with the forbidding Dr. Wylie, who tells her to wipe the "rouge" off her naturally red cheeks.
Chapter 3: Miss Mac
Cherry's first day of classes includes Nursing Arts class with Miss MacIntyre, where she learns why some of her classmates have decided to become nurses; the probationers receive their ward assignments, but will not have ward duty for a month.
Chapter 4: Nurse! Nurse!
Cherry and classmate Josie Franklin spend their first day on Women's Medical Ward with head nurse Miss Baker; when Cherry goes off duty, she discovers a forlorn war orphan in a private room.
Chapter 5: Alias Mona
Cherry, Gwen, and Ann furtively borrow the classroom demonstration doll, Sally Chase, for the lonely child; Dr. Clayton helps Cherry safely return the doll, then lectures her about being irresponsible.
When Cherry brings the Sally Chase demonstration doll to the little war orphan, the child first calls the doll Sally, then Minnie, then Mona. Helen Wells apparently liked the Minnie-Mona progression: She used it again in A Flair for People, a Career Romance for Young Moderns she wrote in 1955, wherein a young woman changes her name from Minnie to Mona.
Chapter 6: The Problem of Vivian Warren
Cherry cleverly deals with Mrs. Thompson, a problem patient with "hospitalitis" on Women's Medical, then confronts rival classmate Vivian Warren and learns the underlying reasons for her difficult behavior.
Chapter 7: Ames's Folly
On Men's Surgical Ward, under chilly head nurse Miss Craig, Cherry blunders while assisting Dr. Wylie in changing a dressing and fears that she will be dismissed, but, despite a nerve-racking mixup, she proudly wins her cap.
Other than the girls who would later become the Spencer Club, the only classmates mentioned in Student Nurse are probationers "Miss P. Shore" and "Miss S. Stevenson," who are assigned to the students' initial ward duty with Ann and Gwen, respectively (pp. 52-53).
Chapter 8: Emergency!
Assigned to the fast-paced Emergency Ward, under the guidance of head nurse Ruth Schwartz, Cherry learns a few lessons about human behavior and is on hand when burn victim Winky is brought in for care.
Chapter 9: Candle Walk
Following Christmas preparations on the wards and a visit to Spencer from Dr. Joe and his daughter, Midge--in connection with his drug research--Cherry celebrates her birthday on Christmas Eve and participates in the hospital's Candle Walk ceremony.
Chapter 10: Four A.M. Mystery
After she rotates through several wards, Cherry's first night duty is marked by the secret arrival of Dr. Wylie's mysterious patient, who is ensconced in an isolated room labeled "Broom Closet."
The first printing of Student Nurse with Frank Vaughn's revised cover art included a trifold tear-out ad for other Grosset & Dunlap series at the back of the book; Companion Nurse, published that same year (1964), is the only other Cherry Ames book with this trifold ad.
Chapter 11: The Forbidden Room
Entering the forbidden room when a call button keeps flashing, despite Dr. Wylie's explicit instructions, Cherry discovers that the patient, a military leader, needs immediate care, and later assists Dr. Wylie at an operation in which Dr. Joe's experimental new anaesthetic is used.
Chapter 12: Farewell and Hail!
Cherry wins praise for her actions to save the life of the mysterious patient, Dr. Joe is invited to continue his research at Spencer, and Cherry, with her first year of training successfully behind her, leaves for an early vacation at home in Hilton.
Cherry Ames, Student Nurse
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