From the earliest years, the school's curriculum emphasized instruction in “practical” or “bedside” nursing with 72 hours of floor duty required of students each week. Instruction focused on bed-making, urinary catheterization, bathing patients and hypodermics, with lectures by physiciannstructors. The first nursing class, consisting of three students, graduated in 1901.
The course of instruction was eventually extended to three years and the curriculum grew to include clinical experiences in obstetrics, pediatrics and psychiatry. With the outbreak of World War II, the U.S. Public Health Department approved Lankenau's training school for an accelerated curriculum to train U.S. Cadet Nurses. By 1992—when the school closed due to the increasing popularity of university-based nursing programs—more than 3,300 nurses had graduated.
The Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association was organized in 1906. Even though the school has since closed, the Association remains active and continues to serve its members—which include all of the nursing school graduates—and Lankenau, as an auxiliary of the Lankenau Hospital Women's Board. Members gather together each spring for the annual reunion luncheon and present a distinguished alumni award to an alumnus who has made a significant contribution to the nursing profession.
Each year, the Alumni Association donates funds to benefit nursing education. In 2010, the Association contributed $5,000 to Lankenau, designated for the Nursing Research Leaders Fellowship and the Nurse Residency Program.
Research is a vital component of Magnet® Designation—a recognition of nursing excellence—which Lankenau was re-awarded in 2015 and 2020. A graduate of the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing, Margaret McClure was instrumental in initiating the Magnet program. Her national research with colleagues in the 1980s during the nursing shortage examined the factors that supported retention and recruitment while focusing on what was being done correctly at hospitals where RN vacancy and turnover were low. The Magnet Recognition program was born through this research.
The Alumni Association is not only generous in its services to nurses at Lankenau, but also provides scholarships to its contributing members as well as their children and grandchildren who are pursuing a degree in nursing.
With all of its accomplishments, and the support of the Alumni Association, Lankenau will continue to shine brightly on the Main Line. And with it, the legacy of the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing and its graduates lives on!