They were weighed by matrons to make sure they were not pregnant and subjected to the white glove test to make sure their cleaning had left no dust.
But the 27 nurses who returned to Dunedin Hospital where they trained 50 years ago say the sense of camaraderie that engendered has stayed to this day.
The former nursing students turned up at the weekend for a 50-year reunion of the nursing class of April 1966, coming from Germany, the United States, Australia and all around New Zealand.
Organisers Maree McDonald and Pauline Mee took the women to the old hospital building in Great King St where they trained, and remembered "hops'', or dances on the top floor of a nearby building where, while there were no male nurses, "we didn't have any shortage of partners''.
The group lived together in a nursing home for two years while they trained, as they were not allowed to go flatting, and were restricted in their movements.
That meant "a lot of sneaking in and out'', Ms McDonald said.
"The home sisters were always spying on us.''
Mrs Mee said matrons from Wakari would search the rooms of the young women who started training aged around 17.
As well, their weight was regularly checked to make sure they were not pregnant.
"It was terrible,'' Mrs Mee said.
The group had been at dinner on Friday "laughing at all the restrictions we had''.
"The matrons used to come round with white gloves and check for dust,'' she said.
Still a registered nurse at the hospital, Mrs Mee joked patients "lived in spite of us'' as they trained.
Susan Guthrie, who "did six months and got out'', remembered patients smoking in the wards after lights out, and seeing the glow of their cigarettes.
"That was allowed.''
Ms McDonald said many of the trainee nurses did not finish their training, instead moving on to different careers.
The fact they had returned for the reunion showed how strong the camaraderie had been.
The former trainee nurses visited wards at the hospital on Saturday, and areas of the hospital where they took tutorials in the 1960s.
