Page 13 of the History of FPB SON

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Bedside Care (late 1950).

Dean Elizabeth K. Porter took over in an era that she referred to as the crisis in nursing."²⁷ President of the American Nurses Association at the time of her appointment, she had earned a national reputation as a leader of the profession. Aspects of the crisis at the Bolton School included: lack of qualified faculty to fill existing positions, low student enrollment, and the continuing tension in the School's relationship with University Hospitals. She was also troubled by the School's lack of control over the quality of the clinical experience students received, calling attention to the "dichotomy which exists between clinical instructors and hospital personnel with respect to responsibility for patient care."²⁸ Ultimately, she believed nursing needed a new theoretical approach. Patients would reap the benefits of improved student instruction.

Like other nursing professionals of the 1950s, Porter recognized the importance of understanding the dynamic interaction between nurse and patient. A nurse must consider a patient's emotional state and how it facilitated or interfered with the healing process. While a doctor looked at the scientific aspects of medical problems, nurses had to be trained to consider the whole person. Educators like Porter considered it imperative that students become sensitized to the psychological complexities of nursing in a clinical setting. Ideally, they should be closely supervised by faculty who were also actively engaged in research. One of Porter's most significant achievements was to set up an experimental clinical program at Hanna Pavilion, a psychiatric hospital within the University Hospitals complex. The new program's main object was to give students the opportunity to "practice nursing as a significant, therapeutic, interpersonal process which prompts effective personal and community living." In Porter's view, the new clinical program represented "a new frontier in nursing service and in nursing education."²⁹

Though this was a start, the "new frontier" envisioned by Dean Porter had yet to win the full support of the medical staff of University Hospitals. Frances Bolton agreed that it was imperative to develop a collaborative relationship with the medical staff. She wrote to Dean Porter: "We at Western Reserve, have tried various methods of cooperation between the School and the Hospital. I have watched the different experiments down the years, and I am convinced that the School and the Hospital must see eye to eye, and work hand in hand and heart to heart."³⁰ A new concept of collaboration that ensured that nursing students would receive superior clinical instruction would come two years later with the hiring of a new dean with the charisma and vision to launch a nursing revolution.

25 Letter from Bolton to Bunge, 12 March 1952, WRHS Archives, Ms. 3943 box 93, folder 1634.
26 Letter from Bunge to Bolton, 18 March 1952, WRHS Archives, Ms. 3943, box 93, folder 1634.
27 Elizabeth K. Porter, Minneapolis Minnesota Joint Section Conference of the ANA, "Economic Security and the Nursing Profession," August 1951, CWRU Archives, Rg. 29, series 29DID, box 1.
28 Elizabeth K. Porter, School of Nursing Annual Report, Western Reserve University, 1954-55, CWRU Archives, Rg. 29, series 29DA, box 2.
29 Elizabeth K. Porter, "Improvement in Higher Education at Western Reserve University, March 11, 1957, Traditions Room Archives, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
30 Letter from Bolton to Porter, 4 October 1958, WRHS Archives, Ms.3943, box 93, folder 1634.

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