North Carolina Nursing History

Elizabeth Scott Carrington was instrumental in founding Carolina's School of Nursing in 1950. The school was the first statewide program of its kind in the nation.

Elizabeth Scott Carrington was born to Robert and Elizabeth Scott on October
3, 1902.  Carrington was an outstanding nurse and nursing educator who was
 instrumental in the founding of the first Bachelor of
 Science in Nursing (BSN) program in North Carolina at the 
University of North
 Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1950.  She earned her BSN from the 
 University of Pennsylvania 
School of
 Nursing in 1926, and her Master's of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree from the same
school in 1940.  Carrington simultaneously joined the nursing faculty at the 
University of Pennsylvania, and Supervised the Operating Room staff at the 
University of Pennsylvania Hospital.  She
 returned to Alamance County in 1941 to marry.  Due to the nursing shortage 
caused by World War II she went to work immediately in Alamance General 
Hospital training and supervising nurses and nurses aides. In 1953, Carrington 
began chairing a state wide advisory
 committee
 to promote, and develop the new four-year nursing school at 
the University
 of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She held this office for over a decade.  Carrington became a recruiter, program planner, lobbyist, and a fundraiser organizer securing a $5 million gift for the nursing school.  She was also
 instrumental
 in establishing the continuing education program at the UNC School 
of Nursing.  This was the first
 statewide program of its kind in the nation.  In 1969, to honor her lifelong
 work to better the nursing profession, the School of Nursing at UNC- Chapel Hill was named Carrington Hall.