• HOME
• THE LANGUAGE OF MADNESS
• THE ASYLUM
• • Asylum Design
  • Patient Buildings
• SOCIETY
• • Urban & Rural Life
  • Class & Gender
  • The Hysterical Female
  • The Evils of "Self-Abuse"
  • Family
  • Visitors
• LEGISLATION
• • Legislative Influence
  • Origins of Legislation and the Criminality of Insanity
  • Teenaged Years: Marked Custody Transition
  • Turn of the Century: Voluntary Admissions
  • Updated Act: The Mental Hospital Act
• SUPERINTENDANTS
• STAFF
• • Working at the LAI
  • Hiring Practices
  • Rules for Employees
  • Employee Roles in Moral Therapy
  • Doctors at LAI
  • Doctor Connections to UWO
  • Training School for Nurses
  • Attendants
  • General Staff
• PATIENT PERSPECTIVES
• • Introduction
  • Patient Art
  • Patient Letters
  • Their Voice
• MEDICAL TREATMENTS
• • Medical Treatment Introduction
  • Use of Restraints
  • Drug and Alcohol
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Female Surgeries
  • Neurosyphilis
  • Shock Therapy
  • Lobotomies
• MORAL THERAPY
• • Moral Therapy Introduction
  • Labour
  • Amusements
  • Diet
  • Religion
• THE WORLD WARS
• • Before the First World War
  • During the First World War
  • After the First World War
  • The First World War and the LAI
  • First World War Veterans at the LAI
  • The Second World War
• MEMORIES OF RMHCL
• • Introduction
  • Their Memories

The Faculty of Nursing at the Univeristy of Western Ontario

Training School for Nurses |  Application |  Training |  Graduation
Accommodation and Recreation |  The Faculty of Nursing at UWO

Dr. George H. Stevenson, Medical Superintendent of the former LAI, was interested in the field of nursing. He was chairman of the Committee on Nursing of the American Psychiatric Association, and chaired a committee whose recommendations led to the establishment of the School (later Faculty) of Nursing at the University of Western Ontario (UWO). Dr. H. W. Hill, Director of the Institute of Public Health, established the Faculty of Public Health at the Western in 1917, and paid a special interest in training nurses.

Nursing programs at UWO was aimed at involving university in the education of nurses and nurse specialists. By offering graduate nurses from general hospitals with an additional course in public health, the programs fit these bedside nurses for greater demands in health care. In 1920, two one-year programs for the Certificate of Public Health Nurse and the Diploma of Public Health began, and the Bachelor of Science in nursing degree started in 1923. In 1926, the first fourteen nurses in the field of psychiatry graduated from UWO.

The former LAI and the Faculty of Nursing at UWO developed a co-operation program in the nursing education. That Superintendents at the former LAI were appointed Associate Professor or Professor of Psychiatry at the Western became a tradition. For example, Dr. William J. Robinson was appointed Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the 1914-1915 sessions, his successors Dr. Fulton S. Vrooman from 1934 to 1935 and Dr. Stevenson from 1935 to 1936. After the Faculty of Public Health was establishment, Dr. Stevenson was also appointed as the Professor and Director of Public Health. Internship opportunities were also offered by the Asylum for the Western nurses in their last year.