Louise Mathilde Powell

Louise M. Powell (1871–1943) was an American nurse and educator who led the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, during its formative years. During her tenure there (1910–1924), the university established a five-year baccalaureate nursing degree program. In honor of her achievements, the nurses residence hall was named for her in 1939. She was later dean of nursing at Western Reserve University (later known as Case Western Reserve University).

Early life

Louise Matilda Powell (1871–1943) was born in Staunton, Virginia in 1871 to Hugh Lee Powell and Ella Stribling Powell. Francis T. Stribling, Superintendent of the Western State Hospital, is her maternal grandfather. He developed more humane treatments for the patients at that facility.

She earned a bachelor's degree at Columbia Teachers College, New York in 1922. Her class was the largest class ever enrolled at that time, with 16 students.

The nursing program that she inherited had been established as a three-year program similar to that in the more advanced hospital based schools of nursing. It differed from those schools in that students were all high school graduates and they received instruction in disease and medical treatment from physicians of the university's medical school. Instruction in nursing care was originally provided only by Miss Powell, as nursing school faculty were added they provided training as well. Completely integrated into the University of Minnesota, it was also unusual in that student nurses had an eight-hour work day instead of the twelve-hour work day common at that time.

At the time that Powell accepted her position, the "hospital" consisted of 3 frame houses located on campus, two on State Street and one on University Avenue in the Stadium Village area of the Minneapolis Campus, East Bank. There was total capacity for 25 patients. The operating room was on the first floor, the recuperating rooms were upstairs. Post-op patients had to be carried upstairs by two people to their recovery bed from the operating room, as the staircases were too narrow for stretchers.

Early public health nursing programs were often temporary, created in response to a particular crisis. In 1918, Powell instituted a four-month public health nursing course in cooperation with the Minnesota Public Health Association, the first of its kind in the state. The flu epidemic was a major catalyst for the course. Thirteen students attended the first course started in November 1918, six students attended the second one which started in March 1919. Among those 19 students was Pearl McIver, who went on to become director of Public Health Nursing for the U.S. Public Health Service in 1944. The course was made permanent in 1919, and was expanded to an academic year in 1920. In 1922 the course included in the curriculum of the university's Medical School, and the two programs shared it going forward. Elliot Hospital (the university facility) had very few maternity cases, pediatric cases, and cases of contagious disease – but those did exist at Minneapolis General. The patients at Miller included private patients, who were not seen at the university hospital.

Powell Hall

Maintenance and support of the nursing student's residence had been a challenge and a focus of energies for Powell during her tenure. At that time, nursing students were provided very modest housing with limited transportation availability, and often an absence of even basic amenities. Powell worked tirelessly to improve the housing situation for her students. In 1939 for the school's thirtieth anniversary it was renamed in honor of Powell. The Louise M. Powell Hall was the first building at the University of Minnesota to be named for a living person. The building was the hub of activity for nursing at the university.

In 1962 Minnesota relaxed its rule requiring that nursing students live on campus, one of the first in the country to do so. As students vacated rooms, the space was put to other uses including hospital clinics and low-cost accommodations for outpatients and patients' families. The School of Nursing administration remained in the building until their new location in Weaver-Densford Hall was opened in 1980. In 1980 the chair of the hospital board of governors announced plans to build an eleven-story hospital on the site of Powell Hall. Powell Hall was demolished in 1982. The new hospital – scaled back to eight floors – opened in 1986.

Other activities

Louise Powell was named Director of Nursing at the university in 1922. While there she led organizational change processes to improve the classroom facilities, improve the housing facilities, increase student recruitment, and to assess quality of teaching. She also organized an Alumnae Association for the Western Reserve University School of Nursing graduates. Ill health caused her to resign from that position in March, 1927.

Awards and honors Louise Powell was the first living person to have a building named after them at the University of Minnesota.

In 1935, Miss Powell was elected honorary member of the National League of Nursing Education.

Personal life Miss Powell retired from nursing in 1926 due to health issues, and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. During her retirement she continued with philanthropic work, learned Braille and translated books including a biology textbook for the use of the blind. She died on October 6, 1943, at her brother's home near Brownsburg, Virginia and is buried in Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton beside her mother and sister.

Writings Powell, L.M. (1911). How the Training School for Nurses Benefits by Relation to a university. American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses 1911 Annual Report, 150 – 158, and Proceedings of the 17th convention, Baltimore, MD: J.H. Furst, 1911. Powell, L.M. (1915). Existing affiliations between Universities and Training Schools. National League of Nursing Education, Annual Report, 106 – 14, and Proceedings of the 21st convention, Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1915. Powell, L.M. (1920). Department of Nursing Education: Student self-government in Schools of Nursing. American Journal of Nursing 20 (3), 471–8. Powell, L.M. (1921). Education in tuberculosis for student nurses. American Journal of Nursing, 22 (11), 98 – 102. Powell, L.M. (1937). The history of the development of nursing education at the University of Minnesota. University of Minnesota School of Nursing Alumnae Quarterly 17 (1), 4 – 13. Reprinted in Brenda Canedy, Remembering Things Past: A heritage of excellence; University of Minnesota School of Nursing Diamond Jubilee (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Biomedical Graphic Communication, 1984), 1.