Abbreviated Timeline of Nursing Education in Houston, Texas

• 1905-1930   St. Joseph Training School for Nurses (diploma program)
• 1930-1948   St. Joseph’s School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1948-1972   Sacred Heart Dominican College (degree program)
• 1972-1986   St. Thomas University (degree program)
• 1907-1945   Baptist Sanitarium and Hospital Training School, Baptist Hospital School of Nursing, Memorial Baptist School of Nursing (Memorial Hospital, Memorial Hospital System)
• 1945-1970   Lillie Jolly School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1970 - Houston Baptist University (degree program)
• 1918-1964   Jefferson Davis Hospital School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1918 -      Prairie View A&M University College of Nursing: Houston Center (diploma program until 1957; degree programs after 1957)
• 1924-1949   Methodist Hospital School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1925-1949   Hermann Hospital Diploma School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1949 -1956   University of Houston Central College of Nursing (degree program)
• 1955-1961   Methodist Hospital School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1956-1973   Hermann Hospital Diploma School of Nursing (diploma program)
• 1960 -      Texas Woman´s University College of Nursing: Houston Center (degree programs)
• 1972-1976   University of Texas System School of Nursing at Houston (degree programs)
• 1976 -      The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston (a part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston) (degree programs)

Sample Curricula

I. History of Nursing Education in Texas by Emma Pope, 1937
Chapter VII: Evolution of the Curricula for Schools of Nursing in Texas

The newer trends in curricula for schools of nursing contrast sharply with the earlier ones. During the pioneer period, each nursing school was an isolated unit and the content of the curriculum was determined solely by the director of the school. This resulted in a wide variation in the curricula of the school of nursing.

At this stage, nursing education was almost purely an apprenticeship system. The prospective nurse was placed directly in the hospital wards without any preliminary instruction and shown how to perform each task, as the need arose, by some older student or graduate. A few lectures were given by the staff doctor in the evenings after seven.

Hospitals became so dependent upon these “so-called” schools that every hospital thought that it must have a training school for nurses, and, indeed, the hospitals could not have developed as rapidly as they did without them.

Under the apprenticeship system, emphasis is always placed upon practical work and the primary end is production of service. The apprentice is a producer and other required to do routine work which as not educational value to the worker. This was true of the nurse apprentice. Hospitals were not primarily concerned with education of the nurse but with providing good nursing care for their patients at a low cost. To this end the nurse’s education, and often her health, were sacrificed. Page 111.

In 1918, John Sealy College of Nursing (in Galveston Texas, the oldest nursing school in Texas) gave the following (curriculum)

First Year
Anatomy and Physiology	30 hours
Fever Nursing	12 hours
Theory of Nursing	12 hours
Bacteriology	14 hours
Preventive Medicine	14 hours
Materia Medica	15 hours

Second Year
Surgical Nursing	14 hours
Medical Nursing	10 hours
Gynecological Nursing	15 hours
Obstetrical Nursing	15 hours
Dietetics	15 hours
Invalid Cookery	40 hours

Third Year
Pediatric Nursing	8 hours
Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat	8 hours
Mental and Nervous Disease	6 hours
Theory of Nursing	20 hours
Ethics	6 hours
Massage	32 hours

The total amount of teaching time for three years was three hundred and four hours. Page 114

II. A Curriculum Guide for Schools of Nursing, Second Revision prepared by the
Committee on Curriculum of the National League of Nursing Education, 1937.

From the Forward

This second revision of the National League of Nursing Education’s well-known and widely used publication, the Curriculum for Schools of Nursing, has been prepared by the Curriculum Committee (formerly the Education Committee) of the National League, under the immediate direction of its chairman, Isabel M. Stewart, and with the cooperation of many groups and individuals. …

While nurses do not control nursing schools, the kind of nursing education offered by schools of nursing is the vital concern of every member of the nursing group. Since the public holds each profession responsible in large measure for the kind of service its members give, and the kind of people who are admitted to its ranks, the chief responsibility for determining what educational standards and programs are necessary for the proper selection and preparation of its members lies with the profession. …

The League’s primary objective in preparing and publishing its Curriculum has been to encourage schools to study their own educational problems and to provide guidance to those interested in revising or building curricula for their nursing schools. However, in presenting this Curriculum Guide for Schools of Nursing it is the hope of the National League that its use will not be limited to nursing educators but that it will be read and studied also by hospital administrators, members of hospital boards or trustees and nursing school committees, and educators in other fields.

Diagram 1. Showing proportion of average school day available for organized instruction, practical experience, study, extra-professional program, and non-educational activities.	Diagram 2. Pattern of proposed nursing curriculum on the basis of 16 week terms.
Table 1. Allotment of hours per week in different terms, for organized instruction, nursing experience, and study.	Table 2. Schedule of courses with time allotment and placement in the program of studies.

III. Current Curricula, 2006

The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston

Undergraduate Catalog. Open this pdf to page 86 of 143 for the Bachelor of Science degree program and sequence of courses.

Texas Woman's University College of Nursing: Houston Center

Clinical Nurse Specialist. This page shows the core requirements and sample program plans for this Master's degree.

Prairie View A&M University School of Nursing: Houston Center

Nursing Courses from 2005-2007 catalog. Open this pdf to page 301 of 320.

Caps and Pins

American Nursing: A History, 4th edition
by Philip A. Kalisch and Beatrice J. Kalisch, 2004
Selections from Chapter 3: The Founding of Early Schools of Nursing in America
Section: Uniforms and Caps Pages 75-77

… The practice of wearing uniform and cap, important symbols of nursing, grew out of its military and religious heritage, which had always placed high value on the wearing of uniforms. Until the 1850s, the religious orders had been the dominant factor in the evolution of nursing service. After this time, Florence Nightingale´s military nursing experience during the Crimean War exerted a powerful influence on the subsequent development of professional symbols. …

Not until the 1890s was a regulation uniform generally established as a distinguishing mark of each nurse training school….

Rounding out the proper attire for the well-dressed nurse was the cap and nursing “badge” or “pins”, as they later became known. The nurse´s cap was originally designed to cover the long hair fashionable during the late 19th century. … Each school developed its own distinctive cap, and the black band on some caps indicated a student´s rank. …

The first Nightingale School of Nursing in the United States, at Bellevue Hospital, also created the first school badge or pin, which was presented to the class of 1880. … The school of nursing pin was always worn very prominently on the uniform and proved to be lasting symbol of considerable pride for the wearer.

Nurses continued to wear their school caps, uniforms, and school pins after graduation, whether as private-duty nurses or superintendents. Physicians and patients, therefore, began to recognize the various caps and uniforms and to associate them with the reputations of various training schools. The distinctive uniform and pin began to symbolize the nurse´s pride in the high standards of the training school from which she had graduated.

The following articles on nurse's pins are available at the HAM-TMC Library, either on-line or in the bound journals section on the second floor.

• Metules, Terri. "Pins and pinning - the traditions continue.(traditions in professional nursing)." RN 61.12 (Dec 1998): 49(2).
• Metules, Terri. "RN pins reflect a rich past." RN 60.n12 (Dec 1997): 52(2).
• "New pins in the RN collection. (nursing school pins)." RN 59.n12 (Dec 1996): 43(2).
• "The RN pin collection: symbols of pride. (nursing school pins)." RN 58.n12 (Dec 1995): 44(2).
• "RN pins down nursing history. (nursing pins)." RN 54.n12 (Dec 1991): 36(3).
• "RN pins - the stories they tell." RN 52.n12 (Dec 1989): 50(3).
• "The RN pin collection: where did they come from? (nursing school pins)." RN 51.n1 (Jan 1988): 55(2).
• "A yuletide display from the RN pin collection." RN 48 (Dec 1985): 22(2).

The following articles on nurse's uniforms are available at the HAM-TMC Library on-line and/or in the bound journals section on the second floor.

• Pearson A., Baker H., Walsh K. & Fitzgerald M. "Contemporary nurses' uniforms—history and traditions." Journal of Nursing Management 9 (2001): 147(6).
• Lehna, C. et al. "Nursing attire: Indicators of professionalism?" Journal of Professional Nursing 15:3 (May-June 1999): 192(8).
• Berglas, C. "Farewell to caps." Nursing mirror and midwives journal 142(21) (1976) :66.

WWW McGovern Historical Collections