University of Edinburgh Nursing Studies Programme

Nursing Studies is an academic unit within the School of Health in Social Science at University of Edinburgh. A teaching unit was established in 1956, the first to be part of a British university. The unit's initial focus was on education for nursing teachers and leaders. In 1960 it offered the first degree courses in nursing in the UK. It became a department of the university in 1965 and six years later gained a Chair of Nursing Studies, which was the first to be established in Europe. The unit also had a Nursing Research Unit, which opened in 1971 and ran for more than twenty years. The unit continues to offer nurse education at undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels.

By the early 20th century nursing education in North America had seen links develop between universities and hospitals but these sort of arrangements didn't emerge in Europe until decades later. From 1946 the Scottish Board of the Royal College of Nursing had organised post-registration teaching for nurses that led to a sister-tutor certificate. The teachers for this course were from the University of Edinburgh, who also ran the examinations and were the body that awarded the certificates. Goddard's Work of Nurses in Hospital Wards report, published in 1953 by the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, had led to some activity in Scotland to improve the training of nurses. In July 1955 it was reported at a meeting at the University of Edinburgh that the Rockefeller Foundation was to provide a grant of £30,000 over a five year period with the aim of setting up a new unit to support the education of nurses. In November 1955, a World Health Organization (WHO) study group on the education of nurses met in Brussels and made several recommendations, including that "At least one experimental school of nursing be set up in each country."

The Nurse Teaching Unit (NTU) was established in 1956 within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Edinburgh. This was the first nurse teaching unit within a British university. Support also came from the WHO and the Royal College of Nursing.Elsie Stephenson took up her appointment of Nurse Director on 1 June 1956. The following year it was renamed the Nursing Studies Unit. The first courses were for qualified nurses, aimed at producing teachers and leaders. The first diplomas were awarded to thirteen nurses in 1958.

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