Alice Leathers Maddox, 1903 graduate,
U.Va. Hospital School of Nursing

In April of 1901, the U.Va. School of Nursing was founded at the same time as the U.Va. hospital. In need of a nursing staff, the hospital adopted a hospital-based training program using the Nightingale model. Charlotte Martin, RN served as the first superintendent of nursing. In the six months she worked in this capacity, Martin established the nursing and management services for the hospital and developed plans for a training program.

Florence Besley RN served as the second superintendent of nursing from 1901 – 1907.  She was responsible for establishing a new management system, which included ordering supplies, assisting physicians developing new clinical services, hiring porters and cooks, admitting patients, and developing a patient record system and hospital fee collection procedure. Besley did this in addition to teaching students.

In September of 1901, Miss Besley admitted four students into the new two-year nurses training program. The students, one night supervisor, and Miss Besley provided all patient nursing care in the twenty-bed hospital.  Students were given a small monthly stipend ($5) and housed in attic rooms of the hospital. 

Three students graduated in 1903 and received the newly designed U.Va. School of Nursing hospital pin.  The U.Va. Board of Visitors officially noted that the hospital school mission was “to give young women, desirous of acquiring the art of nursing, the same careful and thorough training in their calling as was afforded men studying the science of medicine.” Once they graduated, nurses were employed as private duty nurses caring for people in their homes.