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    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center
    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center
    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center
    Ebook222 pages55 minutes

    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center

    By Mary D. French and Elsie L. Whiting

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    About this ebook

    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center is a visual journey through nursing history at Albany Medical Center from the founding of Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1897 to the accomplishments of present-day nurses. Early nurses operated under the mandate "All nursing necessary for the hospital," and their duties included cleaning, preparing special diets, and caring for patients. Nurses gave twenty-four-hour-a-day care during the flu epidemic of 1918, provided military health care during both world wars, and manned the iron lungs during the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Today, nurses at Albany Medical Center continue at the forefront of sophisticated, high-tech medical care.

    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMar 31, 2004
    ISBN9781439615607
    The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center
    Author

    Mary D. French

    Mary D. French, the coauthor of Sand Lake, and Andrew St. J. Mace, a senior librarian at New York State Library, have created this second book for the Sand Lake Historical Society. The two serve respectively as editor and publisher of the historical society�s newsletter. Filled with material they recently acquired, Sand Lake Revisited reveals the exciting and flourishing community that Sand Lake has been and continues to be.

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      The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center - Mary D. French

      education.

      INTRODUCTION

      Few cities in America have as rich a tradition in nursing education as Albany. During the past century, there were many nursing schools affiliated with what is now known as Albany Medical Center. This book is an attempt to build upon earlier efforts and to familiarize all interested with this fascinating history of nursing education and practice here, in New York’s capital.

      It is appropriate to begin by saluting Louise Denison, R.N., Class of 1928, who first began compiling this history. Her countless hours of research and copious notes on salient information entailed voluminous reading, many personal interviews and an earnest attempt to piece together fragments of pertinent data into a meaningful whole. The notes were preserved by the Albany Medical Center Schools of Nursing Alumni Association. Her presence is with us in these excerpts from her manuscript:

      Albany, and its surrounding area can be justly proud of the schools of nursing that have been associated with the Albany Hospital, later known as the Albany Medical Center. These schools existed to educate area nurses beginning in 1897 and continuing until 1989 when each graduate of the last class completed their basic nursing preparation. The four schools within the Alumni Association are: the Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses, (AHTSN) 1897-1937; the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps associated with Russell Sage College School of Nursing (RSCSN) and Albany Hospital, which included a nationwide, emergency, wartime program, 1942-1947; the Union University School of Nursing, (UUSN) a division of the Albany Medical College, 1945-1957 and the Albany Medical Center School of Nursing, (AMCSN) 1955-1989.

      These years were marked by countless discoveries in science, technology and media. Think of the strides in nursing education alone! As Marie Treutler, second Director of the last of the four schools, said so succinctly, From turpentine stupes we have come to organ transplants and heart-lung machines, and from flaxseed poultices to the miracles of antibiotics and hemodialysis. She also might have added, from the use of emetics and purges to the use of tranquilizers and specific specialized medications to rid a patient of convulsions.

      It is hoped you will experience some of the hopes, anxieties, and the last-minute confusions attending the opening of our first school of nursing in 1897. The school sprang into being within a span of six short months, between the issuance of Dr. Albert Vander Veer’s letter of June l, 1896, and the opening of the school the following January, in 1897. Comprehension of this is truly mind-boggling!

      Consider also the diversity of opinions held regarding entry of the United States into the hostilities of World War I as well as the haste necessary and problems met in readying Base Hospital #33 for service. The extreme shortage of nurses was intensified by the catastrophic effect of the influenza epidemic which occurred during both World Wars. And finally, imagine the heartaches and the joys felt by participants at our last graduation festivities in 1989, and the pathos attending the demolition of the Nurses’ Residence. What a history it has been!

      The Alumni Association has been tireless in its efforts to preserve the schools’ histories as seen in the exhibits throughout the Main 4 corridors of AMCH, featuring caps from the various nursing schools, graduation class photographs, a nurse doll collection, and other salient artifacts. Additionally, the association produced the video Alumni Remembrances 1897–1989, which captured valuable oral history from many nursing school graduates. Installed in May 2003, the nursing history exhibit in the Pillars Lobby was the result of the combined efforts of the Albany Medical Center Foundation and hospital nursing staff, along with alumni, who worked together to compile a historical timeline of nursing at Albany Medical Center.

      Journey with us through chapter 1, where the beginnings not only of the first school but also of the modern nursing were founded on Florence Nightingale’s principles. Having weathered the flu epidemic and World War I, over 1,000 nurses had graduated when AHTSN closed in 1937.

      Chapter 2 covers the evolution of nursing education and practice from the nurse as a handmaiden to nursing as a profession. The years between 1934 and 1989 show a time of struggle for the recognition of nursing as a profession, with the debate of education centered on whether the diploma program should remain under the aegis of hospital governance or move under the aegis of a college that would grant associate or baccalaureate degrees. During this period, Russell Sage College was affiliated with Albany Hospital and Albany Medical College for clinical instruction and practice from 1934 to 1944. A further connection existed from 1942 to 1947, when the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps at Russell Sage College was affiliated with Albany Hospital. Beginning in 1945, Union University School of Nursing as a school of Union University and as a division of Albany Medical College offered the opportunity to earn a nursing diploma or, with 60 additional liberal arts college credits, to be awarded a baccalaureate degree in nursing. The School of Nursing at Russell Sage College, as well as the division of School Nurse-Teacher Education at Plattsburgh State Teachers College, affiliated with Union University’s nursing program. Because this program was not attracting a sufficient number of nursing students, the Albany Medical Center School of Nursing was founded in 1955 as a diploma program under Albany Hospital’s board of governors. This school offered the same curriculum as Union University. Enrollment was at its peak in 1975, when a total of 173 nursing students were admitted to the spring and fall classes. Over the years, as the emphasis of nursing education progressed to the collegiate settings, diploma programs declined in number. The closure of Albany Medical Center School of Nursing occurred in 1989. Pathos was felt when the nurses’ residence was demolished.

      Chapter 3 features the strides of increased specialization and the evolution of nursing practice into the 21st century. The spirit of nursing lives on at Albany

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