Jeanne VanTassell Wiley, (class '74) created this page dedicated to the nurses who attended the School of Nursing, with a goal of reuniting graduates.
The Hudson River State Hospital, is a former New York state psychiatric hospital whose main building has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its exemplary High Victorian Gothic architecture, the first use of that style for an American institutional building. It is located on US 9 just north of Poughkeepsie, where it dominates the view to the east of the road. The Hudson River Psychiatric Center, nearby, is a successor facility.
The School of Nursing
Dr. Joseph M. Cleveland, the first Superintendent of Hudson River, believed that the successful care and treatment of patients depended largely on the character and experience of those caring for them. Therefore, he proposed that formation of the School of Nursing. In 1885 "The managers established a training school of the hospital for the instruction of those who wish to make a specialty of nursing the insane." The school was open to both men and women between the age of 20 and 30. The women were to be paid $10 to $17 per month; the men, $16 - $22 per month. On August 31, 1886, the school admitted its first 4 students.
As the school developed, arrangements were made for the instruction in a general hospital in clinical areas such as obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery and contagious diseases. This affiliation process served to strengthen a conviction on the part of the General Hospital Schools that their students would profit by spending time at a State Hospital. Hudson River offered affiliation programs for general hospital students from 1937 until 1966.
As a result of legislative order, the school of nursing was closed. The final graduation ceremony took place on December 5, 1977. In 91 years of service, the Hudson River State Hospital School of Nursing graduated 229 men, and 833 women.
