It was over a century ago – 1907 – that the University of California first established a diploma program at the hospital training school for nurses in San Francisco. Ever since, this School of Nursing has been an exemplar of excellence and innovation.
We offered our first baccalaureate program on the Berkeley campus in 1917 and our first graduate program for public health nursing in 1918. In 1939 the Regents established the first autonomous School of Nursing in any state university.
By mid-century, we established a number of master’s programs and, in 1965, our first doctoral programs.
In 1991, we created our Master’s Entry Program in Nursing, a three-year program during which we prepare promising students without prior nursing education for both RN licensure and a master’s degree.
The graduates of these programs – and the faculty who have trained them – have consistently been among the nation’s leaders in clinical care, policy development, nursing research, and academia. Through a century in which nursing and health care always seemed to be in the midst of dramatic change – with our vision firmly fixed on the patients and families we serve – what became the UCSF School of Nursing in 1959 has remained, proudly, at the forefront of our profession.
Detailed School of Nursing History (PDF)
