To create a cadre of highly trained professionals to lead the next generation of nurse educators, Schlotfeldt energetically pushed the graduate training of "nurse scientists." This federally funded program enabled nurses to pursue Ph.D. studies in related scientific disciplines. It was intended that these highly motivated and academically successful nurses would return to the Bolton School to infuse the faculty with their knowledge and commitment.

The location of the new nursing school building in the Health Sciences Complex on the campus of Case Western Reserve University reflected the new status the Bolton School achieved as an integral member of the university medical community during the Schlotfeldt years. To reinforce the high priority accorded to nursing research, space for laboratory investigations (to complement nursing research at the bedside and out in the community) was set aside in the new building, completed in 1969.

The explosive growth of nursing knowledge and the increasing complexity of the health care environment required more highly trained nurses. During her tenure as dean, Janetta MacPhail introduced the Ph.D. in nursing, the third program in the country. MacPhail also introduced the N.D., or Doctorate in Nursing in 1979--the first professional nursing degree. Despite the difficulty of finding support for graduate students, the program attracted well over 100 applicants the first year for 50 available positions. MacPhail called this new degree "a milestone in the history of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and in the history of nursing education."³⁷ But she also recognized the difficulties of overcoming the skepticism of colleagues in the medical profession, as well as some nurses who had "difficulty comprehending such visionary advancement in nursing education."³⁸ The first students in the program clearly understood the pathbreaking implications of the new program. As one student said, "Having already earned a degree in biology, I wanted a nursing program that would permit me to build on that body of knowledge.³⁹ Of the original 47 students admitted to the program, 35 graduated as Doctors of Nursing.