Nursing in the Storm - Springer Publishing

2 Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina
NURSING EDUCATION
During the late 1800s, as medical schools were being opened in New Orleans,
it became obvious to hospital administrators that nursing schools
were a possible source of cheap labor with which to staff hospitals. Thus
the vice president of Charity Hospital’s board of directors, Dr. Daniel
Holliday, proposed the creation of a formalized nursing school at Charity
Hospital. Dr. Holliday had obtained enough funding for the nursing
school, but the hospital’s board of directors wanted the Daughters of
Charity’s approval to move forward. Unfortunately, the sisters refused
because they had not been included in the planning. As Sister Agnes,
mother superior, stated,
In the nature of things, having in view the object proposed by the establishment
of the training school, the Sister Superior [should] not exercise the
same absolute authority over the matron and the pupils, which is now exercised
over all other persons connected with the hospital, except its officers;
and the oneness of authority is in our opinion essential to proper discipline,
as well as to prevent grave abuses and evils which but little reflection will
suggest. (Salvaggio, 1992, p. 89)
Ten years later, due to continued pressure and complaints that medical
services were not improving at Charity Hospital, the board of directors
developed a set of bylaws for establishing a school of nursing.
A layperson was selected as the nursing school’s first director: Mary
Agnes O’Donnell, who was a Bellevue Nursing School graduate. It is
important to note that authority over and control of issues relating to
discipline were still in the hands of the mother superior. In 1897, seven
sisters graduated in the first class of the Charity School of Nursing (Salvaggio,
1992).
Over the early years, nursing students served as the major source of
manpower for the hospital. Although the pay was minimal, the education
and training the students received was excellent, and the Charity
School of Nursing graduate was often recruited and sought after by
other hospitals—a situation that prevails even today. Since the inception
of the Charity School of Nursing, several sisters have served as
director, including Sister Stanislaus and Sister Henrietta Guyot. These
leaders laid the foundation for the successes realized, and advancements
made, in nursing education and the profession of nursing in New
Orleans.