For a period in the 1970s, it might have seemed to
those involved with Johns Hopkins nursing that things
couldn't get any worse — so they'd have to get
better. And they did.
For nearly all concerned, "better" meant for nursing,
which had begun as a hospital diploma program, to become a
fully autonomous, degree-granting division of the
university, a stature for which many had already fought for
decades. Before that could happen, however, nursing
education at Johns Hopkins took several dispiriting twists
and turns.
This struggle lies at the heart of a new book by the
Johns Hopkins University Press titled Our Shared Legacy:
Nursing Education at Johns Hopkins, 1889-2006. The
richly illustrated book, published in association with the
Johns Hopkins Nurses' Alumni Association, recounts the
history of nursing here, from its roots as a hospital
training program to the present day. Along the way, the
reader meets nursing giants and lesser-known heroes who
guided nursing in good times and bad and revolutionized the
profession.
The 320-page large-format book also celebrates the
20th anniversary of the
School of Nursing's first graduating class — an
occasion that some thought would never come.
Mame Warren, editor of Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for
the World, 1876-2001, edited and co-authored the book,
along with Linda Emerson Sabin and Mary Frances Keen. Sabin
is the editor of the Bulletin, a publication of the
American Association for the History of Nursing and author
of Struggles and Triumphs: The Story of the Mississippi
Nurses, 1800-1950. Keen, a former president of the
Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association, is currently
director of the undergraduate program at Villanova's
College of Nursing.
Together, the three women give voice to generations of
Johns Hopkins nurses and weave an exhaustively researched
narrative.
The nursing school was established in 1889 from the $7
million bequest of Johns Hopkins, who wanted to create a
school that would supply the community with trained and
experienced nurses. It opened as The Johns Hopkins Training
School For Nurses in October of that year, five months
after the opening of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The
Training School, originally led by Isabel Hampton, would
later become the School of Nursing, which turned out
generations of exceptional nurses who cared for those both
here and abroad, including the soldiers of two World
Wars.
Early Johns Hopkins nurses, grossly underpaid and
undervalued by some, not only cared for the sick but were
trained to cook and clean. The nurses' second-class-citizen
plight was somewhat epitomized in their mandatory brown
oxford shoes they called "duty booties."
Warren, director of Hopkins History Enterprises at the
Sheridan Libraries, said that the book details the nurses'
struggle to gain acceptance and respect within hospital
halls and the university.
"It really is a compelling story. For years, nurses
were perceived simply as doctor's helpers and given very
menial tasks," Warren said. "And for decades, nurses here
fought to become a part of the university."
In the 1960s and 1970s, without the university's
backing to support the full, degree-granting program that
the profession demanded, the nursing field began to pass
Johns Hopkins by. In 1973, due in large part to its
inability to maintain its standards and attract the best
candidates, The Johns Hopkins Hospital closed its School of
Nursing.
The candlelight ceremony, begun in 1941
and shown here in 1952, marked the end of the preclinical period
and was the first time the students wore their new
uniforms.
Photo Alan Mason Chesney
Medical Archives
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"The reputation of Johns Hopkins kept the hospital's
School of Nursing afloat a lot longer than most people
would have thought possible," Warren said. "Finally, it
just couldn't maintain its standards."
The School of Nursing was replaced by the short-lived
School of Health Services and its Nursing Education
Program, which welcomed its first class in 1975.
Four years later, however, the school closed, and
nursing at Johns Hopkins entered a period of limbo. In the
intervening years before the modern-day School of Nursing
was opened, the Evening College, now known as SPSBE,
operated a Division of Nursing.
Eventually, a groundswell of support for a university
division of nursing began to grow, fueled by the national
nursing shortage and the hospital's need to attract the
best caregivers and leaders. Carol Gray, who had been
serving as the director of the Evening College's Division
of Nursing, was selected to be the new School of Nursing's
first dean.
The university's School of Nursing officially opened
in 1984, accepting 33 students into its first class. The
school was originally housed in the hospital's Phipps
Building. In 1998, the School of Nursing opened the doors
on its current and first permanent home, the Anne M.
Pinkard Building, located at the corner of Wolfe and
McElderry streets, across from the main entrance of the
hospital.
The creation of Our Shared Legacy was the
longtime ambition of the Johns Hopkins Nurses' Alumni
Association. The association originally had plans to
produce a book in 1984 to honor the establishment of the
university division, but efforts never congealed, and the
concept was shelved until four years ago, when work on this
book began.
Sue Appling, a former president of the JH Nursing
Alumni Association who served as chair of the nursing book
committee, said that the book's readers will discover a
rich history of leadership within Hopkins nursing and
decades worth of traditions.
"Anyone who picks this book up will hear the voices
that shaped nursing education at Johns Hopkins over the
years," said Appling, a 1973 graduate of the hospital's
School of Nursing and a longtime faculty member at the
university's SoN. "Clearly, this book will appeal to all
alumni and nursing historians but also to anyone who wants
to gain a broader understanding of nursing history in
general."
In conjunction with the book's release, the Enoch
Pratt Free Library's main branch, located at 400 Cathedral
St., will house an exhibit titled Our Shared Legacy,
which will display photographs, yearbooks, uniforms and
other memorabilia that document the history of nursing
education at Johns Hopkins from 1889 to the present day.
The exhibit is on display now and will remain until
September.
A book launch celebration, featuring the authors, will
be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, at the Enoch Pratt
Free Library.
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