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Rozella Schlotfeldt saw her
appointment as a chance for a new beginning. Delivering a paper entitled, "Crises in
Nursing -- The Beginning of a New Era," she said that in the 1960s the shortages of
medical personnel, particularly nurses, represented a professional crisis. She remarked
that it was ironic that it was the university that was called upon to solve the problem,
since "many and perhaps most of those problems have been created by a long standing
and persistent disdain for university education on the part of many nurse-practitioners
and even by some nurse 'leaders. '"31 To improve the clinical environment
in which students received their first exposure to the art of healing, Schlotfeldt stressed to Frances Payne Bolton
the need to develop "a large group of university prepared personnel to engage in both
direct nursing care of patients, and in supervisory and teaching activities."32 For
Schlotfeldt and her successor, Janetta MacPhail, success in helping to end the crisis
represented a revolution in nursing.
Schlotfeldt conceived a collaborative program with University Hospitals to maximize the opportunities for learning in clinical settings. She modeled the "Experiment in Nursing" on the way medical students received their clinical training. Like professors in the medical school, the Bolton School faculty held joint appointments as nursing department heads in the hospital. The "Experiment in Nursing," funded by the W K. Kellogg Foundation between 1966 and 1971, achieved the long sought balance between education and service. Henceforth, all student practice would be guided and informed by educational principles rather than hospital expediency. Janetta MacPhail, who served as director of the Experiment in Nursing, saw it as crucial to pushing the frontiers of nursing research. Not only did it produce a teaching environment conducive to better teaching and nursing care, but also it drew upon the skills of "clinical experts who were prominent educators and eager to promote research in nursing."33 Interestingly, the idea of creating joint appointments had existed from the earliest years of the School. In 1928, Dean Nellie X. Hawkinson wrote of the "need for someone to act as a connecting link between the University Hospitals and the School of Nursing." She attempted to create this link by establishing a new position, that of Assistant Dean and Director of Nursing Administration.34 But it took an era of generous funding, an atmosphere of crisis, and visionary leadership to make the new clinical program a reality. 31 Schlotfeldt, "Crises in
Nursing-The Beginning of a New Era", CASE Archives, Rg. 29, series 291DD, box 2. |
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