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     MANUSCRIPTS and ARCHIVAL MATERIAL

Josephine McLeod/Virginia State Board of Nursing Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 2022-053

Scope and Contents

The Josephine McLeod/Virginia State Board of Nursing Collection principally contains correspondence, reports, and informational brochures relative to nursing training programs and schools operating in Virginia in the 1920s to the 1940s. Lists of graduates for some programs are given as far back as the 1890s up to the 1930s. Collection items derive almost entirely from the files of the Board, and range from the tenure of McLeod's predecessor as Secretary-Treasurer, Ethel M. Smith, R.N. (1920-1937), and continue through McLeod's own tenure (1937-1948) to that of Mabel E. Montgomery, R.N. (1949-1970). Of particular interest in the collection is information pertaining to the organization of nursing education in hospital and sanatoria training schools and the subsequent closing of many of these programs in the 1930s, in favor of consolidation under college and university leadership. Files for sixty such programs in Virginia are included. Correspondence details the professionalization of nursing practice and education through site inspections and enforcement of standards promulgated by the Board, as well as the licensing of graduates through examination. A commonplace book of State examination questions dates from 1911-15. Miscellaneous personal materials of McLeod include mementos from her career and two folders of photographs: portraits and snapshots, and images of the University of Virginia. Additions include Virginia State Board of Nursing examination results reported from 1925-1954 for candidates at the University of Virginia and related institutions, including tuberculosis sanitaria. Candidate names have been redacted from these documents.

Dates

  • Creation: 1903-1966

Biographical / Historical

Clare Josephine McLeod, R.N. (1880-1948) served as Superintendent of Nurses at the University of Virginia Hospital from 1924 to 1937, and in this position oversaw both the hospital nursing service and the school of nursing. A Virginia native, McLeod earned a bachelors degree from the Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1903, and in 1911 completed a nursing degree in Baltimore, Maryland at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. McLeod subsequently returned to Virginia, where she organized the nursing education program at Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Richmond, then served in the administration of the Johnston Willis Hospital Nurses' Training School in the same city. Highly regarded for her accomplishments in nursing education and administration by the mid-1920s, she accepted the invitation to come to the University after holding similar posts at the Baptist Hospital, Fort Worth, Texas; the Albany General Hospital in Albany, New York; and the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. McLeod instituted a number of curricular reforms at the University, including eight-hour hospital shifts, rotation of nursing students through all the medical services, and establishment of detailed student records. Virginia's governor appointed McLeod to the State Board of Examiners of Nurses in 1930 (as the Board of Nursing was then known). She became Secretary-Treasurer of the Board in 1937, with the responsibility for oversight and certification of the State's nursing programs and for licensing graduate nurses. These duties compelled McLeod to resign from the University of Virginia, and she held the position of Secretary-Treasurer until her death in 1948. McLeod was much-beloved by her peers and students, and admired for her precision and good humor, her dedication to well-rounded nursing education, as well as her devout religious faith.

Extent

1.75 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Items derived from McLeod's position on the Virginia State Board of Nursing: correspondence, reports, and brochures on nurse training programs in Virginia. Graduates listed from the 1890s to the 1930s. A particularly significant theme concerns the professionalization of nursing education and the movement of educational programs from hospitals and sanatoria to colleges and universities. Inspection and licensing materials, including examinations.

Arrangement

The collection begins with three folders of McLeod mementos, followed by the Virginia Board of Nursing materials. In Box 1, these include licensing examination questions and endorsement lists of Virginia nursing graduates. The remainder of the collection contains folders organized alphabetically by Nursing school name. Within each school folder correspondence, notes, and other items are in chronological order, followed by student lists for multiple years. Types of materials represented vary by school. The licensing examination results contained in the additions to the collection are filed at the end of Box 4. Four professional certificates of McLeod are catalogued with oversized items.

Author
Henry K. Sharrp
Date
2013
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2018: Additions processed by Henry K. Sharp

Repository Details

Part of the The Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry Repository

Contact:
University of Virginia School of Nursing
P.O. Box 800782
Charlottesville Virginia 22908-0782 United States