The William F. Connell School of Nursing (CSON) is the professional

nursing school Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ca ...

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Chestnut Hill is an affluent New England village located west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is located within one or more incorporated municipal entities. It is located partia ...

. The Connell School of Nursing awards undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees, while offering a continuing education program for practitioners in the field. Its graduate program in nursing ranks among the nation's top programs, according to '' U.S. News & World Report''. Its

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(Ph.D.) program was the first nursing doctoral program to be offered at a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

university. The Connell School was the first full-time undergraduate program to accept women at Boston College.

History

The School of Nursing, as it was then known, was founded in 1947 at the behest of Archbishop

Richard Cushing Richard James Cushing (August 24, 1895 – November 2, 1970) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing's main role was as fundraiser and builder ...

, who saw the need for a bachelor degree-granting school of nursing under Catholic auspices in the

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...

area. Mary Maher, who served on the faculty of the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

School, was appointed dean in November 1946. At that time, Boston College was an all-male college and the nursing program was the first full-time undergraduate program to open to women. Initially, 35 registered nurses enrolled in January 1947 for a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(B.S.) degree in nursing or nursing education, followed by 27 secondary school graduates in the fall. In 1948, Rita P. Kellcher, who held degrees in nursing from Columbia and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, was named dean following Maher's brief tenure. The nursing school was initially located at the university's professional school building at 126 Newbury Street in downtown Boston. Nursing students had to commute to Chestnut Hill on Tuesdays and Thursdays to take their lab classes in Devlin Hall. The master's program was established in 1958. Two years later, the school's second home, Cushing Hall, was dedicated on March 25, 1960. The school reached a milestone when a Ph.D. program began in 1988, making Boston College the first Jesuit university to offer a doctorate in nursing. In 2003, the School of Nursing was renamed after Boston College alumnus and businessman

William F. Connell William F. Connell (1938–2001) was an American industrialist and philanthropist who served as chairman and chief executive officer of Connell Limited Partnership. Early life Connell was born in Lynn, Massachusetts to William and Theresa Connell, ...

. In 2015, after more than five decades in Cushing Hall, the Connell School moved to Maloney Hall, constructed in 2002 on the university's lower campus.

Traditions

Each year, Connell School graduates who enter into the nursing field receive a nursing pin, which depicts the official Boston College seal and is inscribed with the words "For Religion and the Liberal Arts" in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, during a pinning ceremony that can be traced back to Florence Nightingale's service during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. The school's Pinnancle Lecture Series brings a widely recognized leader in the field of nursing to Boston College each semester to address an issue at the forefront of health care. Past keynote speakers include alumna

Terry Fulmer Teresa Thomas "Terry" Fulmer, (Ph.D., RN, FAAN) is the current President of The John A. Hartford Foundation. Prior positions include distinguished professor and dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University, and Dean ...

, dean of

New York University College of Nursing The New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing (commonly referred to as Rory Meyers) offers undergraduate and graduate programs in nursing and clinical experience. History Early courses in 1923 ranged from Education in Health and Educati ...

; Margaret Grey, a

Yale School of Nursing Yale School of Nursing (YSN) is the nursing school of Yale University, located in West Haven, Connecticut. It is among the top 20 graduate schools in the country, according to the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report (2017). In addition to ...

professor;

Patricia Flatley Brennan Patricia Flatley Brennan is the director of the National Library of Medicine. Prior to that, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Brennan received ...

, director of the

U.S. National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

; and Susan Orsega, chief nurse officer at the

U.S. Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

. The Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award is presented annually during reunion to an accomplished Connell School graduate.

Clinical partners

Clinical teaching takes place in more than 85 health care facilities in the metropolitan Boston area. Some of these include: * Arbour Hospital * Bedford Veteran's Administration Hospital *

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital (founded in 1916) and New England Deaconess Hospital (founded ...

Boston Medical Center Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a non-profit 514-bed academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest safety-net hospital and Level I trauma center in New England. BMC employs 1,466 physicians—including 711 residents and f ...

Boston Public Health Commission The Boston Public Health Commission, the oldest health department in the United States, is an independent public agency providing a wide range of health services and programs. It is governed by a seven-member board of health appointed by the Mayor ...

Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...

Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is the second largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts Gener ...

Cambridge Health Alliance Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is a healthcare provider in Cambridge, Somerville and Boston's metro-north communities in Massachusetts. CHA offers services including primary care, specialty care, and mental health/substance use services. It incl ...

Children's Hospital A children's hospital is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In certain special cases, they may also treat adults. The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th ...

* Dana Farber Cancer Institute *

Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates is an American non-profit multi-specialty group medical practice operating in eastern Massachusetts. It was founded in the late 1960s as part of Harvard Community Health Plan (now Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Har ...

Lahey Clinic The Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, formerly known as the Lahey Clinic, is a physician-led nonprofit teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine based in Burlington, Massachusetts. The hospital was founded in Boston in 1923 by sur ...

McLean Hospital McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...

Newton-Wellesley Hospital Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) is a community teaching medical center located in Newton, Massachusetts on Washington Street. It is affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. Founded in 1881, part of its ca ...

* Partners Home Care, Inc. * Pine Street Inn * Shriner's Burn Institute * Steward St. Elizabeth's Medical Center *

Tufts Medical Center Tufts Medical Center (until 2008 Tufts-New England Medical Center) in Boston, Massachusetts is a downtown Boston hospital midway between Chinatown and the Boston Theater District. The hospital is a community based medical center for biomedical ...

* UMass Memorial Medical Center *

VA Boston Healthcare System The VA Boston Healthcare System is a set of hospitals run by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in the Greater Boston area. It comprises nine campuses, with three major medical centers in Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and Brockton. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Connell School Of Nursing Boston College Nursing schools in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1947 1947 establishments in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 2003 2003 establishments in Massachusetts

History

Traditions

Clinical partners

See also

References

External links