TCNEAA Endows Library
The Center for Nursing applauds the Nursing Education Alumni Association of Teachers College (TCNEAA) for their generous endowment and dedication of the Center for Nursing library in honor of Dr. R. Louise McManus. A dedication ceremony took place on Sunday, September 17, 2017 where President Joan Madden Wilson welcomed several TCNEAA alumni and thanked them for their gift. TCNEAA Alumni President, Terry Gottlieb spoke about the legacy of Dr. Mc Manus and their intention to honor her with this endowment. Dr. McManus is well known to many of us as an innovator, motivator and educator. Born Rachel Louise Metcalfe in 1896, she graduated from the Massachusetts General Hospital SON in 1921 and took a job at Waterbury Hospital in CT. She soon realized advancing her education was necessary for professional growth since she was promoted to a position of Director of Nursing early in her career. She graduated from TC with a BS in Administration of Schools of Nursing in 1925 and then continued at TC to earn a MA in Student Personnel Administration in 1927. During the years of her graduate studies and for the two years following, Miss Metcalfe worked closely with Isabel Maitland Stewart collecting data on nurses who functioned in dual roles of superintendents and principals of nursing schools and conducting research titled “Achievements of Nurses in Relation to Intelligence Test Ratings” which forever linked her as the nurse who developed standardized achievement, aptitude, and national competency exams. Dr. McManus suspended her studies and work in 1929 to be married and raise a family but returned to TC in 1935 employed as a Research Assistant for the Curriculum Study when her husband died suddenly and she had seven children to support. After earning a PhD in Educational Research from Columbia University in 1946, Dr. McManus assumed the reigns of leadership at TC as the Director of the Division of Nursing which she held until her retirement in 1961.
Dr. McManus impacted the nursing profession nationally and internationally. Some of her achievements in addition to what I have already mentioned are as follows:
· 1st nurse to earn a PhD
· Developed the first Patient Bill of Rights adopted by the Joint Commission
· Founder of the first Institute of Research and Service in Nursing in 1952
· Instituted the first National Fund for Graduate Nurse Education
· Developed the first objective tests used nationally for licensure of nurses, now used by the NLN
· Developed a global view of Nursing Education
· Early advocate of trialing a two-year academic nursing program in community colleges
· Establishment of Columbia University Seminar on the Health Professions
· Visiting Professor, Florence Nightingale College of Nursing, Istanbul, Turkey. 1st nurses to receive academic rank form a University in Turkey.
· Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1974
The endowment of the library celebrates Dr. McManus’ contributions and leadership.
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