SEED OF CHANGE: THE ORIGIN OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING AT NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY, 1952-1959 (VIRGINIA).
Contributors: University of Virginia.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 171
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, History of.; History, Black.; Black Studies.
Description: The establishment of the Department of Nursing at Virginia State College, Norfolk, Virginia in 1955 marked the genesis of the first associate degree program in nursing at a college attended by primarily black students. The college, now known as Norfolk State University, was accepted as the final participating member of an experimental program under the auspices of Teachers College, Columbia University. Known as the Cooperative Research Project in Junior and Community College, Education for Nursing, this experimental program in nursing education spanned the years from 1952 to 1957.

Associate degree education in nursing was the indirect result of a growing concern over an increasing shortage of nurses in the late 1940's. This nursing shortage was no less critical in the Norfolk, Virginia area than in other areas of the country. The shortage particularly impacted the black community in Norfolk.

The effects of segregation impacted the black community in its efforts to seek higher education. Without a program offering nursing education to the black populace, a severe shortage of black nurses developed in the only hospital for the black community. The acceptance of the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College into the Cooperative Research Project would go on to provide an affordable, more easily accessible method of attaining an education for black women in the Norfolk area.

The acceptance into the Project and implementation of the program was not without obstacles. This study will discuss the events leading to the implementation of the nursing program at Virginia State College in 1955. It will identify the individuals responsible for the program's implementation as well as the events leading to the selection of the school as the eighth and final member of the Cooperative Research Project in Community and Junior College Education for Nursing. Obstacles resulting from the fact that Virginia State College's selection was based solely upon its black student body will also be discussed. Finally, the impact of the program upon the community and the students involved will be identified.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: B, page: 0748.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 1992.

School code: 0246.