Yale School of Nursing - History

History

The Yale School of Nursing was founded in 1923 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. It was the first independent University-based school for the education of nurses.

YSN was the first school on nursing to have the autonomy of a school of nursing with its own Dean, faculty, budget, and degree meeting the standards of the university and on a parity with the other schools and colleges of the University rather than organized under another department or school or encompassing a diploma in nursing. Annie Warburton Goodrich was appointed the first Dean of YSN and was the first woman Dean at Yale University.

In 1934, bachelor's degrees were required for admission and Yale Corporation authorized the Master of Nursing degree. This program, allowing students with no prior background in nursing graduate entry, would continue until 1956 when the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program began. The MSN required students to have a prior background in nursing in order to gain entry into the program. The Nurse Practitioner track within the MSN degree was established in 1971 with the offering of the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner specialty. This was expanded in 1972, when the Family Nurse Practitioner specialty began. By 1975 YSN offered 10 specialty programs and tracks, and was at the vanguard of the education of nurse practitioners at the graduate level along with clinical nurse specialists and nurse-midwives. In 1974, YSN reopened admission for students with no prior background in nursing through its Three-Year Program for Non-Nurse College Graduates (later called the GEPN program).