OUR HISTORY

1911-1920

A nursing school takes root

Seeds for the founding of the OU College of Nursing were first planted in 1906 with the establishment of Rolater Hospital by Dr. Joseph Bryan Rolater at Fourth and Stiles in Oklahoma City.  Under the assistance of a nurse, “Miss Mathews,” the first class of student nurses was admitted in 1908.

When Oklahoma City’s Epworth College of Medicine merged with OU School of Medicine in Norman in 1911, Rolater Hospital, its staff and complement of student nurses became part of the University of Oklahoma.  Rolater Hospital, in fact, was re-named University Hospital and those student nurses who desired to continue their training were allowed to do so under a new two-year program at OU.

The new nursing school was called the Oklahoma Training School for Nurses.  Annette Bourbon Cowles was the first superintendent.  She also doubled as an instructor until, a year later, she could hire an assistant, Martha Zimmerman, and E. Swallum was appointed dietitian.

Cowles remained superintendent until 1915 when she was succeeded by Rennette B. Hill, who was followed by Edna Holland in 1916 and Betty Etzel in 1918.

No diplomas for Graduate Nurse were issued by OU in 1914, a 1914-15 university catalog said, but the catalog reported that 32 students were enrolled in the nursing school program.

A 1944 edition of the College of Nursing yearbook, “Tequoyah” (which means “the best”), includes a 1925 letter from Annette Cowles, describing the training during the school’s early years:

“Lectures were given in accordance with curriculum laid down by the National League of Nursing Education and the school was periodically inspected by the state inspector, Mrs. Scroggs, R.N., who was at that time wife of one of the professors in Norman.  She was a most competent and conscientious woman, who did much to establish and try to maintain a higher standard for the School of Nursing.”

The “state inspector”, Idora Rose Scroggs, and OU nursing superintendents, Hill and Holland, also were active in the establishment and early growth of the Oklahoma State Nurses’ Association.  Holland was a charter member, Scroggs served as President from 1911-1915 and Hill was a vice-president.

The association was organized on Sept. 1, 1908, by 22 “graduate nurses” in Oklahoma City.  The purpose of the association was “to obtain state registration and to elevate and maintain the standard of nursing.”

One of the association’s first tasks was to draft a bill for state registration, to be presented to the 1909 state legislature.  The bill, which was introduced in both the upper and lower houses and passed without opposition, became law on March 3, 1909, after being signed by Oklahoma’s first Governor, Charles N. Haskell.

And there the matter rested.

Although the Governor was prompt in signing the bill, he put off appointing the State Board of Examiners for nursing.

Finally, on August 8, 1909, Marjorie Morrison, a nursing association member with a lot of savvy, took matters into her own hands.  Morrison presented herself bright and early at the governor’s office in Guthrie, which was then the state capital, and said she had come to spend the day “helping” Haskell appoint the nursing board.  As Morison had shrewdly expected, her announcement ignited the Governor into action.  To speed her departure from his office, Haskell quickly dispatched an aide to prepare the necessary paperwork for the appointments and run the commissions to the Secretary of State’s office.

However, after the commissions were ready for mailing, the vigilant and resourceful Marjorie Morrison – who was one of the four nurses appointed to the initial examining board – decided to mail the notices herself, rather than trust it to state officials.

Taken from the April 1982 edition of HSC Today, by: Karen Klinka.

1911

Annette Bourbon Cowles, RN named Superintendent of the University Hospital and Director of the Training School for Nurses.

Miss Cowles was a lady of large experience in hospital management, formally superintendent of the Colonia Hospital in Mexico City. 

A private residence, next door to the State University Hospital, at 317 NE 4th St. was refurbished for the School of Nursing.

1913

   

The Training School for Nurses had forty-two students in attendance, and the first diplomas of Graduate Nurse were issued to six graduates.  They were Margaret Neveda Jones, Helen Alice Brown Murphy, Abbie Venice Odell, Cora Etta Phipps, May Bell Powell and Susan Elizabeth Westmorland.

1914 

  

The catalog carried an announcement of a new three-month course for advanced study by graduate nurses.

1915

Lucy Rennett Hill, RN named Superintendent of the University Hospital and instructor of nursing following Annette Cowles.  She served for approximately six and one-half months.

Fifty-one students in the Training School for Nurses and three diplomas of Registered Nurse were issued in 1915.

1916

Lucy Rennette Hill, Superintendent and instructor in nursing resigned her position in March, 1916.  She was succeeded by H. Mary Workman, RN who came from the Naval Hospital at Mare Island, California.  Miss Workman was appointed April 15, 1916, but her tenure was short - she only served four months.

Miss Edna Holland did not want to undertake the business cares which devolve upon a hospital superintendent, but was willing to be the superintendent of nurses and to direct the Training School.  Her appointment terminated the custom of combining the positions and was a step toward developing the profession of nursing.

1918

Annual salary for Edna Holland, superintendent of nurses was $1,200. Seven graduates of the School of Nursing received the diploma of graduate nurse, and there were forty-three nursing students during the year.  The 1918-1919 university catalog outlined the three-year course of study for the nurses training program, listed under the proper academic headings.

1919

Mary Ard Mackenzie, G.N., was appointed superintendent of nurses to succeed Miss Holland.  Mary Mackenzie only served three months and Candice Monfort, G.N. was appointed superintendent of nurses to succeed her. When Edna Holland retired in early 1919, the University Hospital board extended cordial thanks and grateful appreciation from the board and from all the departments of the hospital for her untiring activity in the interest of the Training School.  The citation read as follows: “During the term of her service Miss Holland has had to meet, in the first place, the numerous unusual duties incident to the war, and in the second place, the peculiarly training situation in connection with the prevalence of influenza.  She met both situations with that poise and energy which is characteristic of her work.

*Everett, Mark Reuben, Mark Allen. Everett, and Howard Dean. Everett. Medical Education in Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1972. Print.