College of Nursing: Graduate Psychiatric Program Records

The College of Nursing can trace its roots to 1942 when one semester of physical and social sciences were offered to nursing students enrolled in Newark hospital schools of nursing. In response to a statewide shortage of nurses in 1951, Governor Driscoll diverted $120,000 from Civil Defence funds to Rutgers for the purpose of establishing a nursing program. Initially a Division of Nursing Education, the School of Nursing became the fourth division of the College of Arts and Sciences (Newark); it was formally established as the College of Nursing in 1956.

An eight year plan for nursing education was the original design. The first two years were for an associate degree, the third and fourth years were for completing the baccalaureate degree with an emphasis in public health nursing. The fifth and sixth years were a masters program, and a PhD program was proposed as the seventh and eight years. Accreditation by the National Accreditation Service of the National League for Nursing was obtained in 1955 for a two year associate degree and a four year baccalaureate program with public health nursing emphasis. Not accredited was a two and a half year baccalaureate program for RNs, although two RN students had graduated in 1953. The first class of associate degree students was admitted in 1953 and five graduated in 1964. The first class of generic baccalaureate students graduated in 1956.

The eight year design was effectively eliminated in 1961 when the proposal for a doctoral program was indefinitely postponed because the psychiatric nursing was the only graduate program. The associate degree program was discontinued and the baccalaureate program with a public health emphasis no longer admitted students after September 1961. The baccalaureate program became a four year generic program to prepare nurses for entry into practice.

The College of Nursing undertook a major expansion in 1966 when the Board of Governors approved undergraduate nursing programs for both New Brunswick and Camden. In the 1974-1975 academic year, courses were added to expand the graduate program to prepare "clinical practitioners" in Medical-surgical, Maternal-Child and Community Health Nursing, in addition to the well established Psychiatric-Mental Health program.

The National Mental Health Act of 1946 provided the impetus for integrating psychiatry into nursing curricula throughout the country. By 1949, the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) had developed a grant program to fund graduate education in psychiatric nursing, and this program was expanded in 1956 with the Federal Nurse Traineeship Program, which provided stipends for nurses pursuing graduate education in psychiatric nursing.

Rutgers' graduate psychiatric nursing program was first proposed in 1954 and was driven by the NIMH grant program. An NIMH grant had been prepared in 1954 to support teaching psychiatric in the undergraduate program. A Graduate Nurse Curriculum Committee was created in October 1954 to explore the development of a graduate level program. This committee formed a sub-committee which subsequently developed the program. Funding for five years was obtained from the National Institute for Mental Health in July 1955 and a twelve month masters program began with planning in the 1955-1956 academic year. Six full time students were admitted September 1956 and four were graduated in 1957.

Hildegard E. Peplau Ed. D. was organizer and director of the program from 1954 through her retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1974. Dr. Peplau, a pioneer in psychiatric nursing, developed the concept of interpersonal relations. Papers in this collection also reveal extensive pioneering work on the role of clinical specialists in psychiatric nursing form 1955 through 1958. In addition to her distinguished work in psychiatric nursing, Dr. Peplau served the profession of nursing as the Interim Executive Director of the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1970, as the ANA president from 1970-1972, was third Vice-President of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) 1973-1979.

Shirley Smoyak, a 1959 graduate of the program, succeeded her mentor Dr. Peplau as chair of Graduate Program in Advanced Psychiatric Nursing from 1972-1989. In addition to presiding a chair of the Psychiatric department, she oversaw the expansion of the College Nursing from Newark to New Brunswick and Camden, and as Graduate Director of the entire department, both New Brunswick and Newark from 1977 until 1989.