The Indiana University School of Nursing is an academic college of higher education connected to Indiana University with its main research and educational facilities on the Indiana University Indianapolis campus, as well as at the Indiana University Bloomington and Indiana University Fort Wayne. It is known for its nursing research and education, scholarship of teaching and nursing practice, and for its collaborations with IU hospitals and clinical partners. Established in 1914 as the Indiana University Training School for Nurses, it awarded its first nursing diplomas in 1917 and was renamed the IU School of Nursing in 1956. It offers a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree, a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, and two doctoral degrees: Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The IU School of Nursing has received multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health.
The National League for Nursing has designated the IU School of Nursing as a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education has accredited the IU School of Nursing programs in Indianapolis and Bloomington.
History The Indiana University Training School for Nurses was founded in 1914 as part of the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis. It was renamed the IU School of Nursing in 1956. The nursing school became known for its excellence in nursing research and education, scholarship of teaching and nursing practice, recruitment of well-educated faculty and school administrators, and for its collaborations with IU hospitals and clinical partners.
Founding in Indianapolis The Indiana University Training School for Nurses was established at Indianapolis in 1914. Its first student arrived on June 19, 1914. At the time of its founding, the IU program was one of about 1,800 nursing schools in operation in the United States. It was also one of the four early nursing schools in Indiana that was affiliated with a university.Flowers, p. 11.The other early university-affiliated nursing programs in Indiana were the Indianapolis City Hospital's School of Nursing, which was tied to Butler University; Indianapolis Methodist Hospital's School of Nursing in Indianapolis, which was affiliated with DePauw University; and the Ball Memorial Hospital's School of Nursing in Muncie, Indiana, which was linked to Ball State University. See Allen, p. 63. The IU nursing school was planned in connection with the construction of the Robert W. Long Hospital, the IU School of Medicine's first teaching hospital. Long Hospital, which opened in 1914, was built on a tract of land near City Hospital, about northwest of the downtown Indianapolis (the present-day site of Indiana University – Purdue University at Indianapolis).
While Long Hospital was under construction, Doctor Charles P. Emerson, dean of the IU School of Medicine, chose Alice Fitzgerald as the first Director of the IU Training School for Nurses and the Superintendent of Nurses. (From its founding in 1914 to 1956, when it became IU's tenth academic school and was renamed the IU School of Nursing, the school's director was responsible for IU hospital's nursing staff and the education of IU nursing students.)Flowers, pp. 6, 15, and 52. Fitzgerald arrived in Indianapolis in the fall of 1913 to help equip the new hospital and organize the nurses training school. Fitzgerald also worked with the faculty at IU Bloomington to establish the criteria for students to earn bachelor's and nursing degrees from IU. She also established the nursing school's initial curriculum and designed its first uniforms.Rock, p. 17.
Bertha Ellen Rizer of Worthington, Indiana, was the first nursing student to arrive for training on June 19, 1914. Eight other women joined Rizer to form the first class of nursing students. In 1915, its second year of operation, the nursing program had a total of seventeen enrolled students.Flowers, p. 10; Rock, pp. 19 and 26. Five students completed their three years of training in 1917 and become IU's first graduating class of nurses. They received the nursing diplomas on June 13, 1917, at commencement ceremonies on the IU campus in Bloomington, Indiana.Marie M. Bratton of Brownsburg, Indiana; Lucy E. Gilley of Shoals, Indiana; Josephia A. Grima of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Mary R. Groenier of Greensburg, Indiana; and Bertha E. Rizer of Worthington, Indiana, comprised IU's first graduating class of nurses in 1917. Flowers, p. 10; Rock, p. 19. By 1931, IU had 168 student nurses in training at Indianapolis, but enrollment declined during the Great Depression. By 1941, when the IU Training School for Nurses was first accredited by the National League for Nursing Education, it had graduated 1,300 nurses.Flowers, p. 38; Rock, p. 59.
Early facilities Until the completion of the IU School of Medicine's academic building (Emerson Hall) on the present-day Indiana University Indianapolis campus, nursing students attended classes at Long Hospital and at the IU medical school's facility at Market Street and Senate Avenue, which was several blocks east of the hospital. After the new building opened in 1919, nursing students used its laboratories, as well as classroom space in Long Hospital.Rock, pp. 35–36 and 39. With the opening of the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children in 1924 and the William H. Coleman Hospital for Women in 1927, both of which are located on the IU Indianapolis campus, clinical training opportunities were significantly increased for nurses in the areas of pediatrics, maternity, and gynecology. Completion of the Kiwanis Wing (1930) and the Rotary Convalescent Home (1931) at Riley Hospital further expanded IU's hospital services and clinical training facilities in Indianapolis.Rock, pp. 52–55 and 59.
During its first years of operation in Indianapolis, IU had no residence halls for nurses on campus. IU hospital nurses and student nurses were housed on a private floor of Long Hospital and in nearby homes, referred to as cottages, that the university had purchased or leased.Gray, p. 19; Rock, pp. 19 and 26. Between 1923 and 1925, small stucco cottages for nursing student housing were built near Long Hospital and after Riley Hospital was completed in 1924, a few student nurses were housed the hospital's intern and nursing wing. Increased demand for nurses and additional enrollment of nursing students made it necessary to construct additional housing.Rock, pp. 26 and 54–56.
Ball Residence for Nurses, which was dedicated on October 7, 1928, was the first permanent residence for nursing students on the IU campus in Indianapolis. Funding for its construction came from a $500,000 gift from IU trustee George A. Ball of the Ball Brothers of Muncie, Indiana. The residence hall was named in honor of the Ball family.Flowers, pp. 24–25 and 103; Gray, p. 19. George Ball donated an additional $10,000 to improve the landscape around Ball Residence in 1929 and create the Nurses' Sunken Garden and Convalescent Park, which included formal gardens and Robert William Davidson's bronze statue, "Eve," at the center of a fountain. The fountain and statue were installed when the garden was completed in 1934. Students nicknamed the statue "Flo" in tribute to Florence Nightingale.Flowers, p. 37; Rock, pp. 57, 59, and 77–79.
In 1966, a year after construction began on IU Hospital (the present-day IU Health University Hospital), the IU School of Nursing began planning a building of its own.Flowers, pp. 78 and 82. The new academic building on the Indianapolis campus was dedicated in May 1974.Flowers, p. 82.
Early programs At a time when most nursing schools did not require students to have a high school diploma in order to enroll, IU's early nursing students had to be a high school graduate, rank in the upper third of their high school graduating class, and meet the admission requirements of the IU School of Liberal Arts. Prospective nursing students also had to have earned credits for college-level coursework from IU or another college or university before enrolling in its three-year nursing program. (Previously earned credits could shorten the hours required for the student to earn a graduate nursing diploma.) In addition, the nursing curriculum allowed students to earn a bachelor's degree after completing the required hours of courses in IU's College of Liberal Arts and the nurses training program in Indianapolis.Flowers, p. 20; Rock, pp. 17 and 21–22.
Faculty of the IU School of Medicine and the IU College of Liberal Arts initially provided training for nursing students in Indianapolis that included classroom lectures and demonstrations, as well as clinical training at Long Hospital. Training in psychiatric nursing was conducted nearby at Central State Hospital.Rock, pp. 21–23 and 70. Student nurses were also on duty in Long Hospital for eight hours each day, Monday through Friday, and for six hours on Sunday, until the requirement was phased out in the 1960s.Flowers, p. 59; Rock, pp. 32–33. After World War II, when the demand for trained nurses continued to remain high, the IU School of Education at IU Bloomington expanded its curriculum by offering its first program leading to a master's degree in nursing education.Allen, p. 82; Rock, pp. 33 and 75.
In 1956, when the IU Training School for Nurses was renamed the IU School of Nursing, separate directors were established for the IU nursing school and hospital nursing staff. Emily Holmquist became the first dean of the IU School of Nursing in 1957, which began a new era for the School.Flowers, pp. 6, 52, and 59. By the late 1950s, the IU School of Nursing had become known as "a Midwestern center for nursing scholarship, teaching, research, and service,"Flowers, p. 52. but it transitioned into a school with a national reputation for its advanced nursing programs and research.Flowers, p. 62.
In the late 1950s, the IU nursing school began its first global training programs and made changes to its curriculum and degree programs. The School's first international exchange program was introduced in 1959, when the faculty helped develop nursing schools in Korea. Subsequent projects provided nursing students with cross-cultural studies and global service opportunities in Australia, Costa Rica, and India, as well as Moi University in Kenya, the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Liberia, and at Peking University and Sun Yat-sen University in China.Flowers, pp. 76 and 118. During the same period, the IU nursing school also discontinued its three-year general nursing degree (the last of this type of diploma was issued in 1960) and replaced it with a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree that the National League for Nursing accredited in 1961. The School's curriculum also expanded to include offerings in public health nursing. Continuing education programs and a two-year associate degree were launched in the mid-1960s. Adult and pediatric nurse practitioner programs began in 1971. IU established the state's first clinical nurse specialist program and first doctor of nursing science degree (DNS) in Indiana in the mid-1970s.Flowers, pp. 62, 74, 91, and 94.