Connecticut Training School for Nursing, predecessor school to Yale School of Nursing. Graduating class, 1899

The Connecticut Training School for Nursing was the third training school established in the United States after the model of Florence Nightingale's training school for nurses in England and the first school of nursing chartered in the United States.

The first class was admitted in the fall of 1873, with four pupils and a head nurse, the entrance requirements being one year of high school. The school was affiliated with the State Hospital of Connecticut in New Haven. The course of training had a duration of twelve months. The emphasis was on service and meeting the needs of the hospital and physicians and less on education.

The school continued its existence, graduating 982 nurses, until 1926 when the graduation ceremony was shared by the last graduating class of Connecticut Training School for Nursing and the first graduating class of Yale School of Nursing.

Goldmark Report

In 1920 Rockefeller Foundation named a Committee which included Annie W. Goodrich, M. Adelaide Nutting, and Lillian Wald to study nursing education in the United States. The Report published in 1923 is known as Goldmark Report.

Yale School of Nursing was a result of the decision of Rockefeller Fundation to fund an experiment in nursing education based on the conclusions of Goldmark Report. Yale School of Nursing was the first autonomous school of nursing with its own dean, faculty, budget, and degree meeting the standards of the University. Education took precedence over service to a hospital, with training based on an educational plan rather than on service needs.

Annie Warburton Goodrich, First Dean of Yale School of Nursing, 1923-1934
First Woman Dean at Yale University

Annie Warburton Goodrich had over twenty years experience as a nurse and nursing administrator before becoming the first Dean of the Yale School of Nursing in 1923. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1866, she graduated from New Hospital School of Nursing in 1892. Goodrich served as superintendent of nursing at New York Post-Graduate Hospital, at St. Luke's Hospital, and at New York Hospital, as general superintendent at the Training School for Nurses at Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, before becoming inspector of training schools for nurses at the New York State Education Department in 1910. In 1914, she was appointed assistant professor of nursing and health at Teachers College, Columbia University and, in 1917, director of nursing at the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service. In 1918, she went on leave from the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service to organize the Army School of Nursing. With her appointment at Yale in 1923, she became the first woman dean in the University. Under her direction, the School of Nursing established a new pattern of nursing education based on an educational plan rather than an apprentice system. Goodrich retired in 1934, and died in 1954. She received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1921 and an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Russell Sage College in 1936.

Brady Building, First Home of the Yale School of Nursing

The Brady Building at 310 Cedar Street was the first location of the School of Nursing. The School occupied the top third floor where offices, classrooms, and laboratory space were located. Students were housed in Nathan Smith Hall at 62 Park Street. By 1928, the School had relocated to the first floor of the Brady Building and, by 1930, the students moved to Sterling Dormitory at 350 Congress Avenue, closer to the hospital and the School.

Class of 1926, First to Graduate

The first class graduated in 1926. Admission to the school was granted upon credentials gained at another college or was based on the College Entrance Examination. Later the entrance requirements were advanced to two years of approved college work, which made Yale School of Nursing the first school of nursing in the country with such advanced academic standing. The BN was awarded to students with two years of approved college work and 28 months of the professional course (extended to 30 months in 1932 and to 32 months in 1936).

First Catalog of the Yale School of Nursing

The first catalog of the Yale School of Nursing was published by the University in 1924. It describes the curriculum of twenty-eight months. The curriculum was designed to provide both instruction and experience in bedside care and public health nursing. Clinical experience was obtained at New Haven Hospital, the University Clinic, New Haven Visiting Nurse Association, and later at Children's Community Center, Butler Hospital in Providence, RI, and William W. Winchester Hospital for Tuberculosis in West Haven.