A golden anniversary is always cause for celebration.

The School of Nursing hosted a weekend of festivities from Sept. 26 to 28 to honor the 50th anniversary of its four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program, which Creighton initiated in 1958.

The weekend’s events included a symposium on topics involving nursing research, clinical education, leadership, management and entrepreneurship; an ice cream social; an anniversary luncheon; a ceremony to honor Elizabeth Buschkemper, this year’s Alumni Merit Award recipient; and a special mass with a Blessing of the Nurses at St. John’s on Sunday.

Dr. Eleanor Howell, dean of the School of Nursing, estimated that more than 300 people attended the events.

“We had folks coming from California, New York state, Colorado, Arizona, Texas – really all over, all across the U.S.,” Howell said. “Everyone seemed to enjoy having time to meet with each other.”

Dr. Barbara Braden, dean of the University College and Summer Sessions, was the featured speaker at Saturday’s luncheon. Braden, a 1973 graduate of Creighton’s nursing program, spoke about the history and development of the School of Nursing.

“People were there who graduated from Creighton some time ago, and it’s always fun to reminisce,” Braden said.

“The celebration was really about the anniversary of the opening of the School of Nursing, so I put in things that had to do with the class of ’62 because that class entered Creighton in 1958. It was kind of a dual celebration for the class of ’58 who graduated 50 years ago from one of the two diploma schools that were associated with Creighton.”

Before Creighton initiated its four-year BSN program, nursing students were in apprentice-style educational programs, where they would take classes and perform their clinical work at one particular hospital and then receive a diploma.

“They weren’t necessarily prepared with college degrees or in college courses. It was a type of on-the-job training,” Howell said.

“By moving it to the university setting, the nursing students did all their coursework at the university, and the students could then go to any number of clinical settings to do their clinical practice,” Howell said. “It’s a more consistent, higher-caliber preparation for a career versus just working in one particular area.”

Braden said it was not uncommon for diploma schools to use the nursing students to staff the hospitals instead of concentrating on the students’ education, which was one reason it was important to initiate a baccalaureate program for nursing students.

“The rest was strengthening the science background that the students would have, strengthening the nursing curriculum so that it had a better theoretical base and really to educate them broadly,” Braden said. “We believe that that is necessary in dealing with people, that you know a lot about life from the humanities and theology and philosophy classes so you think about problems in a broader manner.”

When the School of Nursing began in 1958, 15 students were admitted into the program. Today, nearly 500 are enrolled.

“The health care system is much more complex than it was then, but our students continue to make a wonderful difference in the care of patients,” Howell said. “They do high quality classroom and clinical coursework, provide service in schools, in hospitals, homes and in community agencies – that is consistent.”

Nursing junior Emily Schultz said she likes the nursing program because there is a lot of patient interaction, and she gets to start hands-on work this year.

“We are really involved and immersed in what we’re going to be doing post-graduate,” Schultz said. “We just started clinicals this semester, and it’s really our first big exposure to what it’s like to actually be in the field. I’m just looking forward to going to the different rotations and really finding what area of nursing I like the most and seeing it in real life, not just in the books.”

Creighton’s program was the first accredited nursing degree program in Nebraska, and it was one of the first to offer an accelerated program.

The nursing program is also the first nursing school in Nebraska to own its own home healthcare agency and offer a Doctorate of Nursing Practice, which is the highest level of educational preparation for clinical practice and is in its first semester.