UK College of Nursing: Preparing Nurses to Impact Lives Through Science, Leadership and Policy

Since its first class graduated in 1960, the University of Kentucky College of Nursing has modeled innovation and excellence in nursing education. The program has prepared thousands of men and women nurses who have helped lead our county’s health care system as caregivers, executive leaders, impactful teachers, trail-blazing researchers, policy makers and community transformers.

The UK College of Nursing strives to empower students and faculty to reach their full potential in the nursing profession, whether in health care settings, the board room, classrooms settings or the community. Undergraduate bachelor's of science in nursing (BSN) students receive a high-quality education with opportunities for both academic learning and clinical experience – predominantly at the UK HealthCare.  Graduates of the BSN program have a first-time pass rate of 97 to 100 percent for the NCLEX (nursing boards), which exceeds national averages.

The program is renowned for offering nurses advanced-level training, including the nation's first-ever Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) for nurses with aspirations to lead as advanced practice nurses or at the executive level. Through its Ph.D. in Nursing program, which has been ranked sixth in the country by the National Research Council since 2010, the college mentors the next generation of great nursing scientists, educators and leaders.

In a spirit of collaboration characteristic of the nursing profession, faculty members in the UK College of Nursing partner with departments within the university and health care organizations across the state to work toward solutions to health challenges in Kentucky.

Ranked 21st for NIH funding among all public and private nursing schools, with a $16 million research portfolio, faculty members and graduate students explore the most pressing health care issues affecting Kentuckians, including pre-term births, cancer, tobacco use and cardiovascular disease.

Dean Janie Heath holds firmly to a vision of raising the college's status to one of the top tier nursing programs in the country.

“The college is transforming nursing education by creating innovative learning and practice environments that are collaborative and team-based to meet the demands of new health care delivery models, and is affecting policy at the highest level possible.  This is not only raising the status of the college, but is also improving the health and wellbeing of our patients, our families, our communities, and our country’s health care systems.”

The following timeline chronicles the development of the UK College of Nursing:

1956: Kentucky legislators approve the building of a new medical center on the University of Kentucky Campus.

1957: The creation of a new hospital in a time where physicians were already hard to come by worsened with the realization that nurses, too, were in short hand. In Kentucky, only 13 schools offered hospital diploma programs. Combined, these programs graduated 297 nurses in the 1957 class. Because of this draught, William R. Willard, founding dean of the Albert B. Chandler Medical center and dean of the UK College of Medicine, proposed the idea of a College of Nursing. Willard’s college would offer two programs: one for high school graduates and second for registered nurses. 

1958: With the idea of the College of Nursing coming to fruition, Willard found a dean for the College of Nursing in 35-year-old Marcia Allene Dake, a doctorate of education student at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, would become the nation’s youngest dean of a nursing school.

1959: With the appointment of Dake in 1958 came the need to hire more faculty members. Three more women, all with master's degrees in nursing, were appointed within the next year.

1960: In May of 1960, the College of Nursing enrolled the 35 women that would make up the first class. Of these women, five were registered nurses while the remaining 30 were just beginning their education. These women faced many of the same rules University of Kentucky students in the College of Nursing are subjected to today: white shoes, no nail polish and no flashy jewelry.

1962: During the next two years, enrollment into College of Nursing nearly doubled from 40 in 1960 to 74 in 1962. In order to address the growth of the program, Dake teamed up with Henderson Community College to establish an associate's degree program. Once the program at Henderson was established successfully, programs opened at community colleges in Lexington and spread to Covington and Elizabethtown. In 1967, four years after the first partnership, more than 30 percent of new nurses in Kentucky had graduated from one of the associate degree programs.

1964: The College of Nursing graduated its first class. As an established part of the University of Kentucky Medical Center, the college was now offering not only an undergraduate program, but also a continuing education program and the successful associate degree programs.

1965: The College of Nursing was granted full accreditation from the National League for Nursing (NLN). With the expanding reach of the College of Nursing and the success of additional associates degree programs, Dake began the process of creating a graduate program within the College of Nursing. Her hope was that the graduate program would eventually produce nurses with the qualifications to become professors.

1969: The first class of graduate students begins their coursework in September. There were nine students.

1971: Dake resigns her position of Dean of the College of Nursing. During her tenure as Dean, Dake and her colleagues helped to establish a new curriculum that would spread nationwide during the 1960s and 1970s.By the time Dr. Dake resigned, the enrollment in the College of Nursing had grown nearly 350 percent, from 35 women in 1964 to 512 undergraduate students in 1971.

1972: Marion McKenna is appointed Dean of the College of Nursing. Aware of the exponential growth the College of Nursing was facing, McKenna was hired on the condition that a new facility be created to house her school.

1975: The College of Nursing established nursing programs at Hazard Community College and Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro in hopes to make nursing education accessible to nontraditional and rural students.

1979: McKenna proposes the discontinuation of the baccalaureate program in order to focus solely on trained registered nurses. However, the plan was not successful and the original basic baccalaureate program was reinstated in May 1981.

1980: The Delta Psi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau is established at University of Kentucky. Later in the year, McKenna begins the process of establishing a doctoral program in the College of Nursing. 

1984: The College of Nursing announces Carolyn Williams as the new dean. Williams knew the importance of research and publications and emphasized the idea that it would be required as the college continued to advance.

1985: In June 1985 Williams’ doctorate program was approved and in 1987 the first doctoral student enrolled in the program.

1992: The first class of doctorate students graduate with a Ph.D.

2001: The College of Nursing begins to offer a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program, the first in the nation. The DNP program prepares nurses for advanced practice, clinical leadership and executive positions in health care systems. The first class of DNP students graduated in 2005.

2006: Williams resigns as dean and rejoins the faculty. Jane Kirschling becomes the fourth dean of the College of Nursing.

2006: The Ph.D. program begins its Post-BSN Option, which builds on the BSN degree and prepares nurses researchers at the doctoral level.

2007: The first class is inducted into the College of Nursing Hall of Fame. The College of Nursing successfully doubled undergraduate student enrollment in the BSN program – from 80 students to 160 students – in an effort to alleviate nursing shortages in Kentucky and across the nation.

2008: Kirschling and Jay Perman, dean of the College of Medicine, established a work group to evaluate interest in Interprofessional Education (IPE) curriculum for the Medical Center – the IPE curriculum was approved in 2010.

2009: The Masters of Science in Nursing program is ended, and becomes part of the DNP program. Post Baccalaureate students are now able to directly enroll in the DNP program.

2010: College celebrates its 50th anniversary and inducts the second class of the College of Nursing Hall of Fame.

2011: The second class is inducted into the College of Nursing Hall of Fame.

2012: Patricia Howard is appointed interim dean.

2013: College of Nursing partners with Norton HealthCare to offer DNP program to practicing nurses.

2014: Janie Heath is appointed as the fifth dean of the College of Nursing.