Distinguished Alumni

 The traditional symbol for a 60th anniversary is the diamond. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the UCLA School of Nursing, I’m struck by just how apropos that symbol is.

Diamond comes from the Greek word adamas, which means unconquerable and enduring. This certainly applies to the School of Nursing as we reflect on the last six decades. The school has faced significant challenges at many points over its 60-year history, but has proved unconquerable in overcoming each one of them. There is no doubt that we have endured. But far more than enduring, we have always emerged from these challenges stronger and better equipped to build on our legacy as educators, researchers, and providers of community service.

Our history is one that should fill each of us with pride. In the 60 years since being officially established in 1949, our school has led the way as nursing education has shifted from the hospital to the university, as the science of nursing has come of age, and as advanced practice nurses have carved a niche as invaluable players in the healthcare arena.

Our pioneering spirit dates back to the school’s founding dean, Lulu Wolf Hassenplug, who told University of California administrators that a condition of her accepting their offer was that the new school be a university-based program for baccalaureate and master’s preparation. At a time when nursing students were often treated as hired help for hospitals, this represented a new model, with students integrated into the university.

Dean Hassenplug did things her way, even when it ruffled establishment feathers. Early on she decided that her students wouldn’t be required to wear the traditional nursing caps during their clinical rotations. Instead of being identified by their apparel, she explained, her students would be identified by what they did. The symbolism, at a time when nursing was finally being recognized as a profession, was unavoidable.

But this wasn’t just about symbolism. From the start, the school established innovative curricula that were used as models by other nursing schools in the United States and abroad. Some of the most widely adopted theory-based patient care models were developed, tested and utilized at our school in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Our faculty helped to pioneer the new role of the nurse practitioner beginning in the early 1970s and continuing through the 1990s with the establishment of the West Coast’s first acute care nurse practitioner program. The school has always had a strong foundation in science – in the early years, faculty were among the first to conduct research on nursing interventions and outcomes – but the research enterprise has grown dramatically in the last two-plus decades with the establishment of our doctoral program and the recruitment of some of the most renowned scientists to our faculty.

Our school’s history of making a difference isn’t confined to the important research findings that have changed patient care, nor is it limited to the graduates who continue to transform nursing practice and science – 60 of whom are featured in this issue. We are also a school with a rich history of diversity among our students, and a school with an unrivaled track record when it comes to addressing the needs of society’s most vulnerable members, whether it’s through the community-based participatory research of our faculty in underserved communities or the nurse-managed clinics that we run. Most notable among the latter is the UCLA School of Nursing Health Clinic at the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles’s Skid Row area, which has been in operation since 1983 and currently receives more than 8,000 visits from homeless and indigent patients each year.

At several points in our history we have dealt with financial and budgetary crises, but with the help of our alumni and friends we have always overcome them. Today, even as we face the formidable economic challenges confronting the entire University of California system, we continue to thrive. Our student population has doubled in the last three years alone. Our faculty continues to expand on the practice of nursing science, building a wide-ranging research enterprise that is developing potential solutions to the most important health challenges of the day, from improving the health of our most vulnerable groups to addressing issues related to wound care, Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses of our aging population.

Indeed, while there is so much to be proud of, what we are really celebrating as we turn 60 is the outlook for our future. The possibilities for the coming years are boundless; our vision is expansive.

Research: In the last year, funding for research grants at our school has tripled – from $6 million to approximately $18 million. Every day, nurses see the challenges faced by the individuals to whom they provide care. From the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside, our faculty scholars are using the science of nursing to solve real-world problems and improve the delivery of care. They are improving prevention efforts for the homeless at risk of hepatitis and HIV viruses; improving the quality of pressure ulcer care in nursing homes; determining if high-protein diets will reduce the incidence of heart failure; assessing the relationship of brain activity and sleep apnea to cardiovascular health; and examining addiction in chronic pain patients. These are but a few of the major initiatives currently being funded.

Education: While our student enrollment has more than doubled in the last four years, it is still not enough given the critical nursing shortage that will occur in the next decade, as nurses retire and the aging baby boom population increases the demand for healthcare services. We need not only to expand our ability to train more nurses, but also to produce more teachers to train the nurses. Our Center for the Advancement of Gerontological Nursing Science in particular is emphasizing the recruitment of practicing nurses who return to school, obtain a doctorate focused on aging and then teach nurses how to care for our elder population.

Community Service: While we already provide healthcare to the underserved through our clinic at the Union Rescue Mission, we are looking for other ways to expand our relationships within the community and expand culturally competent healthcare services. Several of our faculty recently received grants to look at ways to improve care for African Americans and Latinos here in Los Angeles.

Global Outreach: The World Health Organization is also marking its 60th anniversary – and in much the same way as the UCLA School of Nursing. While the WHO highlights its achievements of the last 60 years, it is addressing the challenges of the future. We are developing international/global initiatives that  will allow us to expand our education and training to provide students with the opportunity to learn nursing from a culturally competent perspective. Global outreach will facilitate student exchange, research experiences and resource sharing.

At the UCLA School of Nursing we celebrate a 60-year record of achievement at a time when we are poised to accomplish even greater things in the years ahead. We live in an era in which our contributions have never been more vital to the population’s health. Nurses are the faces of the future. And the best nurses – in research, education and clinical practice – will be UCLA nurses.


Courtney H. Lyder, N.D., G.N.P., F.A.A.N.
Dean and Professor, School of Nursing
Assistant Director for Academic Nursing,
UCLA Health System