Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing Alumni Association

Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing Alumni Association was organized in 1922 and continues to promote fellowship and communication among alumni. The elected Board of Directors meets up to six times per year with an annual meeting/reunion held during the summer. A newsletter, Drawsheet, is published twice a year. Should you know of any alumni who are not receiving the Drawsheet, please contact us with name and address at:

The early history of the school is closely associated with that of the Kahler Corporation and the Colonial Hospital. In March 1916, the Colonial was opened as a convalescent hotel. In 1917, the Colonial became a unit of the newly formed Kahler Roberts Corporation. This corporation included the Hotel Zumbro, Model Laundry and the Kahler, which was later named the Damon. In 1917, the corporation opened another hospital, the Stanley, that was converted into a dormitory in 1919 and known as Kahler Hall.

In a rural community with 12,000 people, maintaining an adequate supply of registered nurses was a problem for the expanding Rochester hospitals. World War I aggravated this when many nurses enlisted in military service. In order to assist in solving this problem, Dr. Melvin S. Henderson of the Mayo Clinic, Chief of Staff of the Colonial Hospital, and Miss Mary J. Gill, R.N., Superintendent of Nurses at the Colonial, recommended the establishment of a training school. The recommendation was accepted and the Kahler Corporation established the Colonial Hospital Training School of Nurses with admission of the first five students on April 9, 1918. One to seven students were admitted in succeeding months until there was a total of thirty-five. The first class entered for one year of preparation, to be followed by military service in army camps; however, the Armistice was signed in November of that year so their services were not needed by the government.

In 1919, the program was lengthened to two years, and a majority of students elected to continue in the school. Ten students completed the two-year program in 1920. In that same year the school's program was lengthened again, this time to three years, thereby establishing it as a diploma program in professional nursing; the name of the school was changed to Colonial and Allied Hospitals School for Nurses. In 1921, the name of the school was changed again and became the Kahler Hospitals School of Nursing.

The nursing program continued to grow and reached its peak enrollment of 473 in 1944, during World War II. However, the corporation faced very difficult years in the 1930s and 40s - diminishing profits during the depression, shortages of supplies and personnel during World War II, rapidly increasing costs of operation and a heavy tax burden all threatened the very existence of the hospitals and the school.

During World War II, there was an increased need for trained nurses. The United States initiated a program to stimulate interest in the nursing profession through the United States Nurse Corps. On July 1, 1943, the Kahler School of Nursing was approved by the United States Public Health Service to offer its students the opportunity to join the Nurse Corps. To be eligible, the student nurse had to promise to remain in essential nursing for the duration of World War II.

There were 407 Kahler School of Nursing students who participated in the Cadet Nurse Corps program. The program was accelerated to be completed in 30 months instead of the usual 36 months but no part of the curriculum or practical experience was deleted. The last six months of training was the senior cadet period. During that time, cadets could choose from a variety of training experiences in the Army, Navy, Veterans Administration, U.S. Public Health Service and Indian Bureau. Cadets could also request to train at other authorized schools for experience in a specialty area such as psychiatrics or communicable diseases.

As World War II ended, some nurses went to other areas of nursing while many remained with the armed services and did tours of duty.

In 1954, the hospitals and the school were sold and incorporated as the Rochester Methodist Hospital, a non-profit Minnesota corporation. In order to recognize a tie with the past and at the same time to provide identification with the newly named Rochester Methodist Hospital, the school was renamed Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing.

In 1970, the school issued its 3,827th diploma before closing. Rochester Community and Technical College then became the major institution granting nursing degrees in the city. The school spirit lives on through its Alumni. The Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing Alumni Association was organized in September 1922 and is still a very active group.

Information obtained from “50 Years Serving Humanity Through Education Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing, Rochester, Minnesota 1918-1968,” The Drawsheet, Methodist-Kahler Alumni Association, Vol. 8, No. 3, February 1988; and Mayo Roots.

Picture taken by Kendall Hoover. His wife, Hadley Hoover, wrote the book Late Harvest, which is about a young girl who trained for the US Cadet Nurse Corps at the Kahler School of Nursing.

We believe that education is a creative process whereby an individual is guided through selected experiences that are limited by the ideals our society wishes to instill in the next generation, for the purposes of assisting students to learn to deal effectively with their physical environment and to establish meaningful relationships. The components of education are an organized body of knowledge and a controlled environment, a learner and a teacher with established goals, and a subsequent change in behavior.

We accept the premise that our students' goals are to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for self-realization and for effectively functioning as member of the nursing profession and as citizens of the community. We believe that people have individual needs, motivation and talents. We believe that learning takes place most effectively when the learner is physically and psychologically able and ready to learn, is aware of their needs and feels that learning is a useful and satisfying experience. It is recognized that the outcomes of learning are dependent upon what the students perceive, what they transfer from previous experiences and what they are able to use. We believe that intellectual, emotional and social behavior is affected by interpersonal relationships within the learning experience.

We believe that the practice of professional nursing includes not only nursing care, but coordination of this care with the services performed by other health practitioners, provision for continuity of this care in other life situations of the patient, evaluation of patient care with other professional health workers and the teaching, supervising and directing of nursing auxiliary personnel and family members to assist in giving patient care.

We believe nursing care to be rooted in feelings of compassion, respect and concern for the individual and that the uniqueness of professional nursing lies in the therapeutic relationship that develops between patients and nurses as they perform those services which the patients would otherwise do for themselves in fulfilling their basic needs if they were able.

We believe that nursing students are influenced in their learning by the quality of nursing practice which they observe; that in order to learn good nursing they must see good nursing practiced. We believe that if we seek to teach students to understand patients and to treat them with kindness, students must feel valued for their dignity and worth and be shown understanding and consideration.

We believe that an atmosphere that is truly educational is one that not only permits, but also encourages freedom of inquiry, and allows for self-direction which increases as students grow in their ability to assume responsibility.

We also believe that the student experiences security and develops self-discipline if reasonable and clearly understood limits of behavior are set and enforced with fairness, consistency and consideration. We believe that the environment that has been described is one that is consistent with the principles of Christian living and with the general philosophy of our institution.

We believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to motivate and to guide students through meaningful learning experiences providing emotional support where needed and helping students evaluate their present learning in relationship to past achievement.

(Editor's note: This philosophy was found in some memorabilia of the school. It brings back memories for all of us.)

Contact

Transcripts

Transcripts may be requested from the alumni association through the above address, or by requesting them directly from:

Mayo Records Management
North Warehouse 1-117
105 5th Street NW
Rochester, MN 55901

Requests for transcripts must be made in writing (not by phone) and include the name you graduated by, year of graduation, number of transcripts needed, any forms that need to be completed, address where transcripts are to be sent, any deadline dates, and your current name and address. There is no charge for transcripts. Transcripts sent to individual alumni will not contain an official seal.

Upcoming Reunions

September 19 & 20, 2008
Classes 3 and 8
Kahler Grand Hotel, Rochester, MN, 55901
(800) 533-1655 or (507) 280-6200

Published at least twice a year. Should you know of any alumni who are not receiving the Drawsheet, please contact us with name and address at:

Board of Directors

Past President
Florine Baumgard Murray '58
(507) 289-5977
E-mail: jjfmurray1959@msn.com

Secretary
Vaunette Ankrum Alrick '68
(507) 533-8167
E-mail: walrick@charter.net

Treasurer
Ruby Flaaten '65
(641) 845-2332 or (507) 289-2913
E-mail: rcftzta@yahoo.com

Nominations
Sylvia Starkson Alberts '65
(507) 635-5135
E-mail: rsalberts65@yahoo.com

Program/Social
Kathleen Munby Latcham '67
(507) 289-3653
E-mail: jlatcham7@msn.com

Publicity/Drawsheet
Sandra Berndt Moore '66
(507) 365-8876
E-mail: dsmoore@kmtel.com