North Carolina Nursing History

The invention of the birth control pill greatly increased the use of family planning services and the need for nurses to staff these clinics.

Dean Helen Miller of North Carolina Central University School of Nursing established the first Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) degree program in the state.

The first Sigma Theta Tau (a national nursing honor society) Chapter in NC is established at UNC -Chapel Hill.

Longest running migrant health clinic in the country founded in Henderson County by nurses Claire Burson and Barbara Garrison.

The US Congress passed the Community Mental Health Centers Act which promoted deinstitutionalization of patients in state psychiatric hospitals and the creation of Community Mental Health Centers. North Carolina nurses are employed in these new centers to provide mental health services on an outpatient basis.

Mildred I. Clark, Colonel, US Army Nurse Corps and NCSNA member, was appointed Chief of the U.S.Army Nurse Corps.

The US Supreme Court outlaws segregation in health care insitutions in the Simkins versus Moses Cone Hospital case. This predated the US Civil Rights Act by a year and began dismantling racial discrimination in the southern hospitals.

UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing began offering continuing education programs for nurses in NC.

The NC Nurse Practice Act was amended to include a provision for Mandatory licensure and new definitions of nursing practice.

Medicare (a federal program funding care of the elderly) and Medicaid (a federal program funding care of the poor) were established by the United States Congress, providing federal money for health care for the poorest and elderly members of society. This created a need for more nurses. The field of home health nursing as a separate entity from general public health nursing occurred as the result of the new federal dollars. New vaccines to prevent measles, polio and other contagious diseases increased the need for immunization and child health clinics.

First 3 African American nurses graduate from the MSN program at UNC-Chapel Hill. They are Mary Scott Isom, Ruth Stevens and Alice ?.

Report of the 1966 NCSNA Convention.

There were 39 Registered Nurse education programs in the state: 5 Associate Degree in Nursing programs, 8 baccalaureate programs and 26 diploma programs.

Shortages of nurses and other medical personal were experienced across North Carolina

Dean Eloise “Patti” Lewis of UNC-Greensboro hired the first six faculty members and admitted students to the first Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at UNC-Greensboro.

Ollie Mae Massey Carroll, RN becomes the fist African American to graduate with a BSN from UNC Chapel Hill. 

Donna Harris, RN becomes the first African American BSN Duke graduate.

Dr. Helen Miller, Chair of the Department of Nursing at North Carolina Central University received the Mary Mahoney Award at the American Nurse Association convention in Dallas, TX. She is the first North Carolina nurse to receive this national award. Miller is also the first African American nurse to receive a gubernatorial appointment to the NC Board of Nursing.Image result for "Helen Miller" North Carolina Central University.

NCSNA negotiated its first written employment contract, covering nurses at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Fayetteville.

Dean Lucy Conant of the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing worked with Dean Isaac Taylor of the UNC Medical School and Chair Margaret Dolan, of the Department of Public Health Nursing in the School of Public Health to develop one of the first Nurse Practitioner programs in the country.