At the Forefront of Nursing Innovation and Leadership
The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University has earned a reputation as an innovator in nursing education, research and leadership.
Taking an experimental approach to education was one of the key conditions of Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton's 1923 gift of $500,000 to endow the school—the largest ever at the time for a university school of nursing. Bolton said that even though there might be no assurance that a particular effort would succeed, the school should be "free at all times in the future to engage in other experiments, to cooperate with hospitals in these efforts."
This spirit of innovative collaboration has remained one of the hallmarks of Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. The School of Nursing continues to enhance its impact on nursing education, research and interdisciplinary scholarship and practice around the world.
Key Moments in School of Nursing History
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1898 | Established as Lakeside Hospital Training School for Nursing |
| 1918 | Mary Thwing, wife of Western Reserve University President Charles Thwing, heads committee to consolidate various nursing training schools into one university school affiliated with Western Reserve University College of Women (later Mather College) |
| 1921 | Western Reserve University sets up the Department of Nursing Education |
| 1923 | Endowed within Western Reserve University as separate school, with landmark $500,000 gift from Frances Payne Bolton, first congresswoman from Ohio. |
| 1923 | Carolyn E. Gray becomes the school's first dean |
| 1924 | Louise M. Powell becomes dean |
| 1927 | Nellie X. Hawkinson becomes dean |
| 1932 | Marion G. Howell becomes dean |
| 1934 | Master of Nursing program (precursor to the Master of Science in Nursing) admits its first class of students |
| 1935 | Named the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing |
| 1943 | The Bolton Act, which promoted and encouraged nursing education, is passed by Congress |
| 1946 | Helen M. Bunge becomes dean |
| 1947 | New Basic Program introduced to raise nursing standards |
| 1952 | Russell L. Swansburg becomes first male to graduate (later becomes professor of nursing administration at the Medical College of Georgia and author of Management and Leadership for Nurse Managers) |
| 1953 | Elizabeth K. Porter becomes dean |
| 1954 | Betty Smith Williams earns the school’s first master’s degree granted to an African-American nurse; later founds the National Association of Black Nurses |
| 1960 | Rozella M. Schlotfeldt becomes dean |
| 1964 | Nurse Training Act is passed to give nurses financial assistance for advanced education |
| 1967 | Federation of Western Reserve University and Case Institute of Technology creates Case Western Reserve University |
| 1969 | New nursing building within CWRU Health Sciences Pavilion completed |
| 1972 | Janetta MacPhail becomes dean |
| 1972 | PhD program established (third in the country) |
| 1978 | The University Center on Aging and Health established |
| 1979 | World’s first Nursing Doctorate (ND) program launched |
| 1982 | Joyce Fitzpatrick becomes dean |
| 1990 | BSN program is reintroduced; first BSN program to incorporate nursing informatics into all four years of the undergraduate curriculum |
| 1993 | The School of Nursing collaborates with University of Zimbabwe to set up its Master of Science program in nursing distance learning |
| 1998 | Dorothy Brooten becomes dean |
| 1998 | The Sarah Cole Hirsh Institute for Best Nursing Practices Based on Evidence established |
| 2001 | May L. Wykle becomes dean |
| 2002 | The School of Nursing establishes the country's first advanced practice Flight Nursing Program |
| 2003 | Ohio Historic Marker honoring Frances Payne Bolton placed on campus at CWRU |
| 2005 | The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) becomes the ND’s successor and establishes a separate Graduate Entry Program |
| 2008 | The School of Nursing collaborates with Japan's Aichi Medical University to establish the first graduate-level acute care nurse practitioner/flight nursing program in Asia |
| 2011 | Mary E. Kerr becomes dean |
| 2011 | The School of Nursing integrates mandatory perioperative nursing content into the BSN curriculum, among the first in the country. |
| 2018 | Carol Musil named interim dean |
| 2019 | The School of Nursing moves to the newly completed Health Education Campus. The Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion serves as the new home for the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, the CWRU Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine, and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. |
| 2019 | Carol M. Musil becomes dean |
| 2021 | The Marian K. Shaughnessy Nurse Leadership Academy opens in the Samson Pavilion at the HEC. |