BUILDING THE NATION THROUGH WOMEN'S HEALTH: MODERN ...

Between 1905 and 1910, several missions banded together to consolidate medical and
nursing schools, and the consolidation continued throughout the Nationalist era with subsequent
governmental controls. As we have seen above, medical training in mission facilities up until
this time was very sketchy and sporadic. Because funds and material resources were scarce,
these missions decided to pool their resources into a few select medical training institutes in
order to train more qualified practitioners and establish more rigorous qualifications and
standards.
In 1905, the London Missions, together with the American Presbyterian and Methodist
missions, formed the Union Training School for Nurses in Beijing. There were eight students in
attendance in 1909. 146 In 1906, the Union Medical College for Women was established, also in
Beijing, by the Educational Union of North China, comprised of the London Mission, the
American Presbyterian Mission, and the Women’s Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist
Episcopal Mission. 147 Its first class of two students matriculated in 1908, and a second class of
at least six entered in 1910. In 1906, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, United States,
established the Union Medical College in Peking. These latter two institutions were taken over
in 1915 by the Rockefeller Foundation’s China Medical Board (CMB) to become Peking Union
Medical College, which I will discuss below. The Nanjing Union Nurses’ School, affiliated with
the Friends’ Mission and Hospital, opened in 1908. 148 In 1924 the North China Union Medical
146 "Union School for Nurses, Peking," CMJ 23, no. 5 (1909): 344-45.
147 The London Mission withdrew from the Union in 1908. Anna Gloss MD, "Medical Education for Women in
North China," CMJ XXIV, no. 6 (1910): 423-25, "Union Medical College for Women, Peking," CMJ 23, no. 5
(1909): 334-35, "Union School for Nurses, Peking," 344.
148 Lucy A. Gaynor, MD, "Nanking Union Nurses' School," CMJ 23, no. 5 (1909): 34-343.
63