KU School of Nursing celebrates a rich history and a memorable milestone
Originally part of the School of Medicine, KU School of Nursing was established as its own school in 1974, but it has continued to grow and expand since its first class graduated in 1909.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the University of Kansas’ nursing program becoming its own school with its own leadership and agenda for expansion. But nursing education has been an essential part of the university since the early 1900s. What started as four student nurses in a two-story building has grown into one of the most respected programs in the country.
“Our foundation goes back to 1906, when we first began as a nurse training program,” said Jean Foret Giddens, Ph.D., FAAN, dean of KU School of Nursing. “Over approximately 120 years, we’ve built a reputation for nursing leadership and excellence with a solid foundation of excellence to build upon into the future.”
During the 1880s, a medical revolution was happening around the country. Proprietary medical schools were becoming more common, and the University of Kansas created a one-year preparatory medical program. In 1905, a four-year medical school was established in Lawrence, and the idea of creating a training program for nurses started taking shape.
A wealthy physician, Simeon Bell, M.D., donated land where the new medical school and teaching hospital would be relocated in the Rosedale area of Kansas City, Kansas. He paid $75,000 to construct a two-story medical pavilion, measuring 112 by 45 feet, to be used as a hospital and a nurses’ quarters. On the first floor, there were two large and four small wards, a physician’s room, two bathrooms and reception and dining areas. The nurse trainees were housed on the second floor, along with additional patient wards.
The first head nurse
included four women. These pioneers of
health care education sacrificed their
personal lives to earn a diploma they used
to obtain a nursing license.
On July 1, 1906, the Eleanor Taylor Bell Hospital and Training School for Nurses officially opened. George Hoxie, M.D., dean of the medical school, hired Pearl L. Laptad as superintendent of nurses for the hospital and principal and lecturer for the training school. Her other duties as head nurse comprised supervising the housekeeping staff, including cooking and cleaning. She took charge of the operating room and was on call for night emergencies. She recruited three acquaintances to become trainees, and before the building officially opened, the group sewed bedsheets and furnished each hospital room.
As medical schools were becoming more common, hospitals were charged with educating their own nurses. Hoxie saw nurse education as an integral part of the university. His goal was to ensure that nurse training would become “a bona fide department within the university structure with competent instructors, adequate curriculum and a university atmosphere.”
Nursing textbooks didn’t exist, so in 1908 Hoxie wrote one: “Practice of Medicine for Nurses and Students of Domestic Science.” Chapters included instruction on health and disease, emergencies, venereal diseases, intestinal parasites, surgical nursing and skin diseases.
Hoxie is credited with designing the school pin, the seal of the university with a red cross. Laptad chose a simple design for the school nursing cap, different from her own meticulously pleated one. She stated, “I never did hold a cap in high esteem, no use and too commonly used by others.” In 1909, 16 doctors and four nurses graduated from the University of Kansas’ Rosedale campus.
Rules of the school
“Women of superior education” (likely referring to high school graduates) were given priority for admission to the school. They were required to present “testimonials from a clergyman about their good character” and a certificate of good health from a physician. If students survived the three-month probationary period, they were expected to stay for the entire three years of training.
They were given room and board and a stipend starting at $8 each month for new students, and $15 at the senior level. There were strict rules for student nurses, which included curfews and a ban on marriage. Students had to provide their own equipment, including a metal hypodermic syringe, scissors, probe, forceps and a thermometer.
The course of study comprised 25 topics, including anatomy, chemistry and dietetics during all three years, while obstetrics, pediatrics and surgery were saved for the final year. Classroom instruction was six hours a day from October through June with a three-week vacation. Students spent six days a week working 10-hour days in the wards, watching procedures and then repeating them. Even with this rigorous schedule, the program continued to attract students. By 1915, 24 “pupil nurses” were enrolled.
The nurse training program awarded students a diploma at the end of three years. The document certified that the graduates were qualified to take the registered nurse exam, which was established by the Kansas State Board of Nursing in 1913.
The first nurse to be listed as faculty in the university catalog was Martha Hardin, supervisor of nurses and instructor of ethics, theory and demonstration in nursing. In 1923, she employed an assistant and increased the focus on instructional hours. Around this time, Henrietta Froehlke, M.A., who directed the training school’s educational program, began to advocate for the development of a baccalaureate degree program for nursing.
In 1929 nursing students moved into Hinch Hall (named for S. Milo Hinch, superintendent of nursing from 1913 to 1922) on the north end of Bell Hospital’s new location at 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City.
spent six hours a day in the classroom and 60 hours a
week working in the hospital while learning.
Student nurses were required to remain unmarried until completion of the program. But in 1941, a motion by Harry Wahl, M.D., dean of the medical school, removed that condition — to the dismay of some faculty.
In 1951, a catastrophic flood in Kansas City brought student nurses and medical students together to immunize thousands in the community against typhoid. The next year, Christine Weems became the first African American student to graduate. In 1953, the last class graduated from the diploma program.
Cornelius Neufield became the first male student to graduate from the nursing program in 1963. Five years later, the Board of Regents-approved master’s degree program was established.
Finally, a school of their own
On April 1, 1974, the KU nursing program gained full school standing, separate from the School of Medicine. The Department of Nursing Education officially became the School of Nursing. The School of Allied Health (later renamed the School of Health Professions) was also established independent of the medical school. Today, these three schools make up the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Now with a fully accredited school, nursing had transformed from a vocation to a profession. Programs continued to expand, offerings became more diverse and in 1983, the Ph.D. program was established.
Then, in 2000, a School of Nursing building was completed at KU Medical Center. The six-level, 100,000-square-foot building at 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard connected to Murphy Hall, the original building at that site, which opened in 1924.
This year, the KU School of Nursing’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program ranked No. 26 of the 686 accredited baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States that were ranked by U.S. News & World Report, and it claimed the No. 19 spot among such programs at public institutions.
The BSN program at KU School of Nursing also ranked as the No. 1 program in Kansas. The school has campuses in Salina, Kansas, and Kansas City, Kansas, where it offers numerous degrees and certificates.