Welcome to this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga where we journey through the history of nursing education, using stories that connect the past to the present and then our future as we reimagine our teaching, learning, and scholarship. It is often said that the past teaches us about the present - to study history is to study change. This year Saga gives voice to nursing through the words of our early nurse leaders who organized a discipline and carved out systems to formalize the education of nurses throughout the United States. In Their Words illuminates the visionary work of NLNPathfinders who questioned traditional curriculum paradigms and, in the process, co-created standards for nursing education to build the discipline of nursing. In part one, we explored the beginnings of curriculum reform orchestrated by the newly formed American Society of Superintendents of Ttraining Schools for Nurses. Focus was on caring for and about students and improving the work conditions of student nurses and graduates. Equally important to the Society was the development of a standard curriculum that advanced theory and practical knowing and that established the roots of contemporary ethical practice. Part two will focus on efforts to formalize training school curricula and teacher training during the Society's first decade. Finding the right balance between theory and practice challenged the superintendents. In 1897, at the fourth annual meeting of the Society, president Agnes Brennan called for a
new understanding of the theory practice dilemma:
This idea was revolutionary, to combine knowledge acquisition and scholarship with practical training, especially in an age when women's work was not valued and the moral Integrity of nurses work was not fully established. To balance theory with practice in an emerging yet embryonic nursing curricula would require specialized teacher training. In 1898, at the fifth annual meeting of the Society, Mrs. Hampton Robb spoke about the requirements for members of the Society to teach in the new training schools and the need for specialized teacher training. At the time, the prevailing belief was that graduation from a quality training school with sufficient preparation to teach. In her words: Mrs. Hampton Robb's thinking was extraordinary. To execute this plan, the Society formed an education committee led by Ms. M. Adeline Nutting, now superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Training School. Together, she and Mrs. Hampton Robb set out to find a university to prepare superintendents to teach. This was extraordinary since at the time, women, especially nurses, did not go to college. Yet, in 1899, Ms. Nutting and Mrs. Hampton Robb prevailed upon Dean James Russell of Teachers College, Columbia University, to open its doors to graduate nurses to lay the foundation for the training of teachers and public health nurses. In 1923, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Society, now the National League of Nursing Education, Ms. Nutting spoke of this transformative event. So much had been accomplished in the first decade of the Society. Its leaders recognized the need to formalize the training of nurses and nurse educators and carved a new pathway for nurses and for nurse graduates to be valued for their special knowledge and preparation. Join us next month as we continue the story of the evolution of nursing education and nursing curriculum reform during the early 20th century. And so the Saga continues and may our Saga continue as we bring to a close this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga. Thank you for joining us