Document found on page 4 of "Development of Practical Nursing in Hawaii 1947-1967" ScrapbookArticle describes the opening of the School of Practical Nursing through the Vocational Department at Kapiolani Community Colleg

Kapiolani Technical School Practical Nursing Department

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University of Hawai'i System Repository

r DEVELoPMENT OF THE SCHOOL ( OF PRACTICAL NURSING (Editor's note: Members of the Health Council will remember that at the August 1947 meeting, a representative of the Community Nursing Council outlined a plan for the establishment of a school for the training of practical nurses and asked the Health Council to lend its support to the project. The · Council passed a resolution endorsing the plan and requesting the chairman to appoint a committee to study ways and means of raising additional funds needed to operate the proposed school. Funds were secured and the P-ractical Nursing School is now in its 8th month of operation. A complete account of its development since the time the project was first presented to the Council is given below.) • The first school of practical nursing in d·.e territory was established on October 20, 1947. Efforts to accompLs:1 this progressive step have been underway for some time, but only in the past two years has the community been sufficiently aroused to the need and desirability of such a school to inspire constructive action. The Vocational Division of the Department of Public Instruction, in cooperation with the Community Nursing Council and the Board for the Licensing of Nurses, worked out specific regulations and standards including tl:e curriculum for the course and for any similar courses that may be organized in the future on other islands. The school was set up under the aus-pices of the Vocational Division of the Department of Public Instruction. Due to the fact that it was organized after the 194-7-48 school budget had been passed by · the last legislative session, there were not sufficient funds available for the pur-chasing of specialized equipment, run-ning expenses and other expenditures ;J ~ ..... peculiar to this type of course. This de-ficit was met by the very generous gift of eight thousand dollars ( $8,000) from the Health Committee of the Chamber of Commerce. The funds necessary for the school expense during the coming biennium have been i·ncluded in the bud-, get of the Department of Public Instruc-tion to come before the next legislature for approval. The Practical Nurse Training Course opened on October 20, 1947, with 22 students enrolled and a faculty consist-ing of Mrs. Marjorie Elliott, Instructor in Charge; Mrs. Myrtle Schattenburg, Coordinating Instructor, and Miss Mary Murai as Home Economics Instructor employed on a part-time basis. Subse-quent classes for the school year were admitted on January 5 and April 12 of this year. · The classes are located in the Home Economics Building of the Washington Intermediate School. The facilities pro-vided there are splendid and such that future expansion will be possible to ac-commodate a growing schooL With the entrance of the September 1948 class the quarters will consist of one large classroom and office combined, a large practice and class room for use in teach-Practical Nurse at Shriners Hospital. ing nursing procedures, a well equipped foods laboratory, and a well furnished, attractive, practice apartment. The latter is. used in teaching nursing and house-hold management in the home. Students for the course are required to have at least an eighth grade educa-tion (two or more years of high school preterred) and to be between 18 and 50 years of age. Applicants must be in good mental and physical health and show suitability for the work by inter-views, references and aptitude tests. A fee of seven dollars and fifty cents ( $7.50) is charged and students are' re-quired to provide their own living quar-ters and uniforms. They receive no re-muneration during the course. Students from other islands are given assistance in finding homes in which they can work for room and board when necessary. During the student's period of duty lunch and laundering of uniforms are provided by affiliating hospitals. The tliree classes ·of 24 students each that are,accepted yearly are given a forty-weeks' course. The first . ten week:s are given over to approximately 265 hours of intensive theoretical instruction in Nursing Procedures, Food Preparation and Meal Planning, Ethics and Personal Relationships, Care of the Chronic and Aged, Infant and Child Care and Devel-opment, and Anatomy, Physiology and Personal Hygiene. The last thirty weeks of the course are given over mainly to clinical practice, under supervision, in the following or~ ganizations: Central Union Church Pre-school, Kapiolani Maternity and Gyne-cological Hospital, Leahi Hospital, Ma-luhia Home, St. Francis Hospital Dietary Department, and Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. During this period, the students also receive experience in Home Manage-ment in the practice apartment and give nursing care in various homes in the community to subacute, chronic or con-valescent patients, as well as caring for mothers and young babies. Mrs. Clara Ishikawa, a . former public health nurse, has been added to the staff on a part- · time basis, to supervise the students in their home nursing experience. While receiving valuable experience, the stu-dents are also helping meet the com-munity need for this type of nursing care and household assistance. At the completion of the course stu·· dents will receive certificates from the school and will be eligible to take the Lice~sing Board examination ·for Prac-tical Nurses. The graduate student will be privileged to add the school cap to her uniform and may wear the official school pin. Mrs. Schattenburg recently spent three days on Kauai, talking with high school students for recruitment purposes and exploring the possibilities of setting up an affiliation in the Wilcox Memorial and Mahelona Hospitals there for students . whose homes are on that island, and who wish to work there after graduation. Since adequate facilities are available and nurses and community organizations are exceptionally cooperative, it is planned to carry out this affiliation as soon as there are several students desiring it, probably in the fall. It is expected that similar plans will be carried out on Ha-waii and Maui as soon as arrangements can be made. The school is greatly benefited by the able advice and assistance of an Advisory Committee composed of representatives of hospitals and various community or-ganizations headed by Mr. Clarence Fer-( Continued on Page 11) f P~ACTIC,i\L NuRSE ScHOOL REPORT (Continued from Page 9) dun of the Vocational Division of the Department of Public Instruction. The od:er members are: Mrs. Gardner Black, Miss Patience Clark, Mrs. T l: omas Gage, Miss Esther Kekela, Miss Charlotte Kerr, Miss Laura Draper, Mrs. Marjorie El-liott, Dr. Nils P. Larsen and Mr. R. A. Watkins. We are conscious of the need for classes in practical nursing for men, who may serve as orderlies or attendants in hospitals or do private duty. It is ex-pected that such a class will be establish-ed in the coming school year. A real need for the school is a loan fund to assist students whose limited resources are not sufficient to provide for their living expenses while taking the course. Some assurance has been given of the availability of a fund for this purpose if an organization · can be found that is willing to administer it. Since the total fund will be only about one thou-sand dollars ( $1,000), the principal will be used as a rotating loan fund. If it were taken care of in the usual way by a trust company, the fund would be rapidly depleted by the cost of adminis-tration. After approximately seven months of operation, this new and precedent-setting course has been accepted with coopera-tion and enthusiasm by the hospital~, doctors, and members of the community for whom the students have worked in'-their training period. As the graduates go out into practical nursing positions, the standards for practical nurses will be raised anc;l the community will benefit by the atilditional nursing service available. 

Development of the School of Practical Nursing

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Development of the School of Practical Nursing

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