Former UNMC College of Nursing dean, Rena Boyle, Ph.D., died Monday, July 10, in a Phoenix nursing home at the age of 91. She served as dean of the UNMC College of Nursing from 1967 to 1979.
A registered nurse, Dr. Boyle served as associate dean in 1967 and was appointed the first dean of the College of Nursing in 1968.
She was instrumental in transforming a school under the College of Medicine into an autonomous College of Nursing and a major component of the medical center. Under her leadership, the master’s program in nursing was begun; enrollments increased from fewer than 100 to more than 700 when Dr. Boyle retired in 1979; and the College of Nursing building was constructed.
Dr. Boyle made nursing education more accessible, not only by providing master’s education in nursing, but also by establishing the Lincoln division and the off-campus baccalaureate program for registered nurses. She helped meet the state’s need for nurses by establishing an associate degree program during a time of a critical shortage of nurses. To prevent blocked educational mobility for nurses, she implemented the innovative “career ladder” concept of nursing education in which the associate, baccalaureate and master’s degrees in nursing were articulated into a learning continuum.
She also was successful in bringing money from federal and foundation grants into the state to support nursing programs. The Lincoln division and the career ladder were funded with Division of Nursing grants; the off-campus baccalaureate program with Kellogg Foundation monies; and more than $2 million in federal funds were received for construction of the College of Nursing building in Omaha.
A native of Illinois, Dr. Boyle received her baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing from the University of Minnesota, where she also served as a faculty member for 11 years. After leaving Minnesota, she joined the Public Health Service where she served as a nurse consultant to the International Cooperation Administration in Haiti and Guatemala for two years. She then served for four years as chief of research and consultation in the Division of Nursing Resources of the U.S. Public Health Service, and subsequently served for six years as director of baccalaureate and higher degree programs for the National League of Nursing.
She advised numerous United States nursing schools on their educational programs, as well as served as a consultant to the surgeon general for the Army, the University of Panama and the medical center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Boyle received numerous awards for her dedication to the high standards for the nursing profession, including the Nebraska Nurses Association’s 1976 Nurse of the Year Award and the 1978 Outstanding Achievement Award. In 1979, the National League of Nursing — the accrediting agency for nursing schools and colleges — presented her with its highest honor, the Mary Adelaide Nutting Award. In 1980, she received the Distinguished Service to Nursing Award from UNMC.
Dr. Boyle once said: “I never really wanted to be a nurse. I just wanted to teach, but it was the Depression and the only thing I could afford to be was a nurse. Then I began to like it and was able to have both – teaching and nursing.”