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“Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses. We must be learning all our lives.” These were the sentiments of Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, and a driving force behind the Rhode Island Hospital Nurses Alumni Association, a dedicated group of alumni of the former Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing.

Originally known as the Rhode Island Hospital Training School for Nurses, established in 1882 with just two students, the nursing school provided professional training on the grounds of Rhode Island Hospital, which had relied solely on informally trained male medics since its founding in 1863. By 1896, the school’s alumni association had grown to 122 members. Three dormitories for nursing students were established on the property, providing housing for students, until the school’s closing in 1973.

“We went to the best nursing school in the state,” says Susan McNamara, Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1965 and Treasurer of the recently disbanded Alumni Association. “We were 18 years old, and capably dealing with birth and death.” Until its dissolution, the Rhode Island Hospital Nurses Alumni Association offered professional lectures, assistance with continuing education credits, held seasonal annual meetings, as well as hosted luncheons, group activities, and a Reunion Tea. They were also custodians of a historical collection of nursing uniforms, including that of Louisa White, Class of 1917, and the first dean of the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing, where the uniform is currently displayed.

With a diminishing group of members and the desire to preserve the legacy of the Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing alumni, the group came to the Rhode Island Foundation and made the decision to establish the Rhode Island Hospital Nurses Alumni Association Fund to support nursing scholarships, as part of their dissolution plan. The Fund will assist those seeking nursing education for generations to come, as part of the Foundation’s extensive nursing scholarship portfolio, and will continue the Association’s long tradition of learning, service, compassion, and care in honor of the 4,150 graduates of the Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing.