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logoArthur B. Ancker Memorial School of Nursing



Timeline
1891 Board of Control for St. Paul (population 500,000) suggested that a school of nursing be established offering a two-year program
1892 Fourteen students entered the City-County School of Nursing
1893 The first nurse graduates from the Training School for Nurses
1902 Increased nursing program from two years to three years
1917 New nurses residence completed. This allowed all the pupils to live in one building instead of being divided throughout the hospital.
1918 The first instructor was hired to teach at the Ancker School of Nursing. Until this time all lectures were given by the doctors.
1920 Scarlet fever struck the first Ancker nursing student in 1920
1923 Dr. Arthur B. Ancker passed away. The Board of Control placed in its permanent records the following sentiment concerning Dr. Ancker: In the midst of the duties which he loved and performed with wholehearted devotion, Dr. Arthur B. Ancker passed quietly and happily out of the world to which he had given so much cheerful, uplifting, efficient human service. He died as he would have wished in the harness, his last act and thought connected with the work which was his lifes joy.
1925 A glee club for students was organized for their enjoyment as well as others
1968 Ancker admits their first male students who would eventually graduate with the class of 1972
1976 The final class graduates from Arthur B. Ancker Memorial School of Nursing


History
The training school was established by the Board of Control in 1891, at which time a two-year course was established. The was designed to give young women desirous of becoming graduate nurses, a systematic course of instruction and practice, to enlist the interests and efforts of intelligent and well-educated women in the care of patients who seek treatment at the hospital, and to meet the demand of the community for competent nurses. The course was increased from two to three years in 1902.

In the beginning years of the school, the curriculum involved lectures from local doctors and consisted mainly of clinical experience. The hospital was staffed solely with pupil nurses and the superintendent. In 1896 lectures were scheduled on a regular basis and involved topics such as autonomy and physiology and the diseases most prevalent at the time such as diphtheria.

The first graduate of the Training School for Nurses was Martha Illjarn in 1893, the only graduate of that year. It wasnt until 1897 that the first commencement exercise was performed in the hospital; this exercise was carried on until the closing of the school.
Class Picture


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