SCAA founder Louisa Lee Schuyler was an advocate for people impacted by poverty and mental illness at a time when the most common solution was institutionalization with little oversight, pushing people further to the margins of society, out of sight and out of mind. She advocated for improvement of the institutions themselves, as well – from conditions within them to the training of caretakers.
Early in SCAA’s history, Louisa and the organization had a hand in professionalizing the field of nursing. At a time when hospital nurses were often untrained in hygienic practices, Louisa Lee Schuyler advocated for formalized education and training for hospital nurses.
In 1873, Louisa and SCAA helped to establish the first nursing school in America, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City – Bellevue Training School of Nursing . The training school taught strict hygienic processes – a cleaner and safer approach promoted by Florence Nightingale in England, but new to the United States. SCAA sent a member to England to meet with Nightingale and thus had the benefit of her guidance and counsel as the school was formed.
Testifying to the success of the nursing school was the fact that by 1879, there were 63 students enrolled, and 15 years later it could boast of 424 graduates,19 of whom subsequently would serve as superintendents of other nursing schools that emerged around the country.
Launching the training school for nurses at Bellevue stands as one of the landmark achievements of Louisa Lee Schuyler and SCAA, representing an enduring contribution to the welfare of all Americans.
In 1915, a special tribute in the Social Service Review informed readers that the American Nurses Association and the National Organization for Public Health Nursing noted of Louisa that, “No careful student of the history of nursing in this country can fail to appreciate the debt this profession owes to this far-sighted philanthropist.”
Louisa Lee Schuyler, SCAA, and Bellevue Nursing School transformed nursing into a profession, brought hygienic practices into U.S. hospitals, and created opportunities for countless women.
Learn more: Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association Records.
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