The heritage of the College of Nursing dates back to 1885, when the college’s first antecedent, the St. Luke’s Hospital Training School of Nursing, opened to offer diploma education to nurses. In 1903, the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing accepted its first students. From 1956 to 1968, nurses were taught at the merged Presbyterian-St. Luke’s School of Nursing. Before the establishment of the Rush University College of Nursing in 1972, more than 7,000 nurses had graduated from these schools. Today, more than 5,500 baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral students have graduated from Rush College of Nursing.

To learn about nursing education at Rush's predecessor schools in the early 20th century, download the brief presentation "The Art of Nursing: Nursing Education at Rush's Predecessor Schools, 1900-1920."

History of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's College of Nursing

1837 Rush College of Medicine founded	1864 St. Luke's Hospital founded
1884 St. Luke's Hospital founded	1885 St. Luke's Training School established
1903 Presbyterian Hostipal School of Nursing Established	1957 Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing opens
1972 Rush College of Nursing Established	Dr.Luther Christman is appointed Dean
1985 Kathleen Andreoli is appointed Dean	2005 Melanie Dreher is appointed Dean

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Rush University Medical Center Archives contains an extensive collection of uniforms, documents and various artifacts from all four schools of nursing. For more information about visiting Rush's archives or submitting an artifact for the archives' collection, visit the Rush University Medical Center Archives Web site.