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Beyond Nightingale


A Timeline of Milestones in Nursing History (national and international events are in italics)

1860 Nightingale Training School for Nurses is established in England.
1883 U.S. has 22 schools of nursing.
1893 36-bed Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital and MHMH Training School for Nurses open.
American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools is founded.
1905 MHMH nursing course increases from two to three years.
1906 Graduate Nurses of New Hampshire formed; group lobbies for state registration of nurses.
1907 Psychiatric rotations at New Hampshire State Hospital begin (end in 1914). State's first Nurse Practice Act passes.
1908 First formal SON graduation held.
1909 First college nursing program opens.
1910 Alumnae association formed. First state board exam given.
1920 Billings-Lee opens as a nurses' dorm.
U.S. has 3,000 diploma schools.
1923 Committee for Study of Nursing and Nursing Education decries exploitation of student nurses as cheap labor.
1924 School starts admitting students in classes instead of one at a time.
1927 Hitchcock Clinic founded.
1928 Word "training" deleted from SON name; it's now the MHMH School of Nursing.
1929 MHMH is among first to undergo voluntary assessment by Committee
on the Grading of Nursing Schools. First catalogue published.
1937 Building 37 opens as a nurses' dorm.
1940s Nursing research begins to be done.
1943 MHMH participates in U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program.
1944 Affiliation made with New Hampshire State Hospital in Concord (ends in 1964).
1947 First yearbook is published.
1950 Building 50 opens as a nurses' dorm.
1952 SON temporarily accredited by National League for Nursing (NLN).
The Journal of Nursing Research, the first such journal, is established.
1955 Affiliation made with Boston Lying- In Hospital (ends in 1962). MHMH opens one of the nation's first ICUs.
1956 Affiliation made with Boston Children's Hospital (ends in 1968).
1957 Department of Nursing organizes as two entities: service and education.
1958 SON gets full NLN accreditation.
1960s Team nursing, a national trend, is a clinical requirement at MHMH.
1963 NLN accredits SON for only two years, indicating serious problems.
1964 Psychiatric affiliation made with Danvers (Mass.) State Hospital.
1965 First male student enters SON (11 graduate by the time it closes). NLN renews accreditation.
American Nurses' Association says the minimum preparation for nursing should be a bachelor's degree.
1970s MHMH has 420 beds.
1973 MHMH becomes part of DHMC.
1974 SON faculty holds a conference on the future of nursing.
1976 SON issues a report recommending the school be closed.
1977 MHMH Trustees accept closure recommendation. Last class enters.
Since 1967, diploma programs have dropped from 840 to 428, baccalaureate programs risen from 188 to 329.
1980 Last class graduates. MHMH has trained 1,850 nurses in 87 years.
1981 Colby-Sawyer College, in affiliation with MHMH, begins a bachelor's program in nursing.
1985 National Center for Nursing Research opens at National Institutes of Health.
1991 DHMC moves to Lebanon, N.H.
1994 Dartmouth-Hitchcock Air Response Team begins operation; team includes flight nurses.
2003 American Nurses Credentialing Center awards DHMC "Magnet" status, recognition of meeting the highest standards of nursing excellence.
2004 DHMC starts a nurse residency program using patient simulators.

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