AN OPPORTUNITY LOST IN TIME - THE FIRST GENERATION OF STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF NURSING: SCHOOL OF MEDICINE IN ZAGREB, 1953/1954

The aim of this paper is to present the course of the transformation of the Nursing high school into the College of Nursing and its accession to the School of Medicine in Zagreb. The task of the paper is to present the organisation of schooling for the first generation of nursing students. The reconstruction of the data was based on the archival material stored in the files of the School of Nursing Mlinarska in Zagreb and the Society for Nursing History of the Croatian Nurses Association (CNA). Documents and photographs kept in private collections were used as well as already published literature related to the topic. For the purposes of oral history collection, a semi-structured questionnaire created in 2013 by the Society for Nursing History was used. The first program of the College of Nursing was launched at the initiative of Dr Andrija Štampar in the academic year 1953/1954. There were 17 students enrolled, 11 of whom graduated on time. The study program was comparable to the current world trends in nursing education. The analysis of the teaching staff reveals that the teachers were nurses with extensive experience and recognised university lecturers. The introduction of a higher education nursing program, comparable to the international nursing programs, speaks to the nurses' expectations and status. Compared to today's programs, it was very modern.