Celebrating Baylor nursing’s 100+ years of excellence
About 1 in 3 Baylor undergraduate students enrolls planning to major in a health-related field, drawn by the university’s long-held reputation for preparing students to thrive in healthcare careers. That includes students in the Louise Herrington School of Nursing –which traces its roots back 118 years and awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in nursing 65 years ago.
Baylor’s nursing school started in 1901 as the Nurses’ Training School of the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium. Like today, the school was located 100 miles north of Waco in Dallas, and students lived in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Over the next few decades, the sanitarium was renamed Baylor University Hospital, and the school was renamed Baylor University School of Nursing. In 1950, the school officially moved from being under the hospital to under Baylor University, offering the undergraduate program we know today. Students in the program completed two years of courses on the main campus in Waco and two years of clinical work in Dallas, with the first class graduating in 1954.
Today, the school is known as the Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON), renamed in 2000 for the beloved “Ms. Lou,” who recently passed away. Like its first graduating class, students study for two years at the main campus in Waco and two years at the Dallas campus.
Over more than a century, the program’s reputation for providing excellence in the field of healthcare has only grown. Much of that is due to a great relationship with LHSON’s neighbor, Baylor University Medical Center, where students conduct clinical work. The nursing school’s beautiful new building, located right next door to the medical center, provides further support to the program.
Hundreds of bright, caring students have matriculated through Baylor nursing — like the live-saving WWII nurses Hattie Brantley and Althea Williams, the grads who turned hospitalized children into superheroes, or the elementary school nurses who saved their students’ lives. They’re all perfect examples of Baylor Bears showing God’s love in their everyday work.
Sic ’em, Baylor nurses!