The Sisters' Flat: nurses used to be trained in 'The Hunkerbunker'

We can now say that we have a great shortage of nurses in the Netherlands. But half a century ago it was no different. That is why people thought in the 1960s: we are going to build special buildings for training and housing at hospitals. Such a 'tower' was known as De Zusterflat, but also as De Hunkerbunker…

History program Andere Tijden brings that time of nurses back then on TV tonight. Metro already watched De Zusterflat for the television program Blik op de Buis . For older viewers it will be an 'oh yes moment' and in living rooms there will undoubtedly be "how much has changed...". Young viewers will be amazed to see what the work of a nurse entailed back then (including cleaning). And why did people spend more than a week in a hospital bed after a simple meniscus operation? Nowadays you are sent home the next morning at the latest. Had a heart attack? Six to eight weeks flat, at least (always in the neatest pyjamas). It is hardly imaginable anymore.

Back to De Zusterflat . We should mention right away that we know that the term 'nurse' is anything but appreciated these days and that nurse is the norm. But that's what a tower like that was called. Or worse: 'beschuitbus', 'turtle dove' and 'hunkerbunker'. Andere Tijden meets the sisters of that time and about hunkerbunker Cokkie, one of them, says: "They said: that's where the girls live, so there must be something to get there." Cokkie can laugh about it now.

The Sister Flat The one that can be seen in Andere Tijden is the one at the Ikazia Hospital in Rotterdam-Zuid. It was opened in 1965 and until the early 1990s many hundreds of nurses in training lived there. In addition to Cokkie, we also see Dorien and Annelies. Jeanette also returns to the tower. She started fifteen years later than the first Ikazia sisters and has already seen many changes. The technology of course, the dress made way for a trouser suit and the old cardboard head cap was said goodbye.

Housing complexes like De Zusterflat offered young women – only women, of course – a protective environment during their education. We hear an older sister say at the time: “In every woman lies the gift of giving herself.” Ouch, you would come up with that now… Back then it was a pretty normal thought.

That is why this Andere Tijden is at least fun to see and notice how quickly things change. The young girls that we now see again as elderly ladies, remember that they generally loved the subjects. Not a single bad word is heard. Not even about having to wash old men, perhaps? No way: "If a man got an erection, put a sheet over it. Yes, right?" The fact that they had to read a passage from the Bible to all the patients - usually six - in a room every day was even more uncomfortable than the washing. "It felt like having to."

And what about that longing bunker? No way. Only a fiancée was allowed to use the room of the sister in training as an exception. She had to ask permission during the consultation hours of the director of De Zusterflat. Entering after 22:00 was forbidden anyway. But yes, the old-fashioned 'sneaking out' already existed back then.

Andere Tijden, De Zusterflat can be seen tonight (June 10) at 9 p.m. on NTR on NPO 2. You can watch it again via NPO Start .

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