“To categorize The Student Nurses as anything other than exploitative would be not only misleading but unfair since the film, made under the aegis of Roger Corman, never purported to be anything but that. This is not to suggest, however, that the film is uninteresting or undeserving of critical consideration; for beneath its ‘exploitative' veneer (notably, a pervasive ‘drive-in' brand of sex and violence), The Student Nurses addresses issues which reflect a progressive, namely feminist consciousness. One of the film's most serious moments features a surprisingly forceful pro-abortion stance. The opening sequence in which a nurse successfully fights off a would-be rapist is not intended simply as an instance of gratuitous violence inserted for spectator titillation. Rather, it functions as a metaphor for women grappling with the presumed passivity of their role and sets the tone for this film about women examining options and making choices.
“The Student Nurses focuses on four women who find themselves confronting crises of an individual nature just prior to graduation from nursing school. Their respective anxieties cause each to reevaluate professional goals in light of personal conviction. One nurse undergoes a politicization which compels her to question the ramifications of a ‘straight' job. Another, suffering from emotional involvement with geriatric patients, alters career desires for peace of mind and heart. And the remaining two find themselves on opposite sides of the abortion issue when one of them learns she is pregnant. When the day of graduation arrives, these four women have reconciled their professional objectives with personal beliefs.” --L.A. Thielen