| Goodrich concluded that the
result was the "awakening of Cleveland's social consciousness and sense of social
responsibility; while their influence throughout the country of their social vision and
achievements is immeasurable."16 Along with her social vision, Howell raised academic standards, despite declining enrollment during the Depression. In 1934, the school made graduation from an accredited college a requirement for admission. That year it admitted its first college graduates for study towards a Master of Nursing degree. When this class graduated in 1937, it was the first class of students in nursing with a Master of Nursing degree anywhere in the world. Their advanced training served them well. On their board examinations they took the top four honors in the state. As Martha Crawford humbly exclaimed to the press, "My heavens! I hadn't any idea I would come in first. I just did my best."17 Howell was criticized for making admission to the School so selective. A report issued by University Hospitals, hard pressed to keep financially solvent during the Depression, found "no reason why the Hospital should bear the costs of an experiment in education which deprives it to a large extent of the services of the student nurses."18 The Depression brought about basic changes in delivery of health care. Because households could no longer afford private-duty nurses, families sent their sick to hospitals for treatment. Now unemployed, graduate nurses were forced back into the hospitals at bargain wages. Nevertheless, this did not solve the nursing shortage that grew increasingly severe as war in Europe began in 1939. Because of the pressing need for bedside nurses, in 1941 the Bolton School agreed to admit high school graduates to a three year diploma course as part of the program of National Defense. Bolton School faculty and students worked closely to do their part in helping America win the war. The creation of the Cadet Nurse Corps, brought into being by the Bolton Act in 1943, was designed to address the critical shortage of nurses during World War II. The contingent of Cadets pushed enrollment to an all time high and stretched the faculty to the breaking point. They had to teach two sets of students, those with only high school diplomas who took a basic course, and those with college preparation who were eligible for more advanced courses. Dean Howell was hard pressed to look out for the well being of her students in the face of increasing demands that they work overtime in the hospital to make up for staff shortages. Howell wrote in 1945, "There is no minute of the day or night of the whole year when students of this school are not faithfully nursing the critically ill citizens of this community. It would be a startling and striking picture if it could be accurately portrayed."19 Perhaps as a result of the exhausting work
during the war, Howell's health failed, causing her to resign in 1946. A fitting
testimonial to the Howell years comes in a letter from one of her former students, a 2nd
lieutenant in the armed forces, who wrote in 1942, "Never has there been a moment
that I have lost faith in the ideals that you have represented ... And Miss Howell, again
may I tell you how much you mean to me and the rest whom you have brought up in the field
of nursing.20 |
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