A Very Brief History of Hamline’s Medical and Nursing Education

Hamline established its first medical program as the Hamline University College of Medicine in 1895 when the university absorbed the Minneapolis College of Physicians and Surgeons.  In 1900, a building was erected at the corner of 5th and 7th Avenue in Minneapolis, which was a part of Hamline until 1907 when trustees voted to merge the medical school with the University of Minnesota Medical School. About 300 people received their M.D. degree from Hamline’s medical school.

In 1940, Hamline University and Asbury Methodist Hospital of Minneapolis (established in 1892) established the Hamline-Asbury School of Nursing, which was later named the Hamline University School of Nursing.

Hamline established with two separate programs – a three-year diploma program affiliated with Mounds Park and Midway hospitals (added in 1949), and the five-year (later a four-year) B.S.N. affiliated with Asbury Hospital in Minneapolis. In each program, students completed science and lab courses at Hamline, and clinical and practicum experiences at hospital sites.

Hamline’s School of Nursing was discontinued in 1962 following the decision to concentrate resources and staff on the liberal arts program. This decision was made not just as a result of finances, but also as a result of a renewed emphasis on the liberal arts articulated by president Paul H. Giddens following Hamline’s centennial. Giddens increased the percentage of faculty holding the PhD from 36 to 48 percent, and emphasized quality scholarship and teaching in the liberal arts. The last class in Hamline’s the three-year nursing program graduated in 1960, and the last class in the B.S.N.degree program in 1962. A total of 447 women received the B.S.N., while 758 women received three-year diplomas in nursing.