“Pre-Nursing” from the “1938 Franciscan” yearbook (page 82)

Dr. Edna Locke Barney (1878-1954) was San Francisco State’s first college physician. By 1936, Barney was teaching a steady course load for the natural sciences including human anatomy, biological growth and development (a euphemism for sex education), nutrition, and physiology. Barney saw a need for nursing training at the State College level. San Francisco State was the first to institute a degree program for nurses in the California State College system. In 1938, a two-year pre-nursing program was offered to students interested in transferring to the nursing schools at either University of California or Stanford University. Barney organized the Pre-Nursing Club to bring nursing students together for social and educational activities. This group turned into Alpha Pi Nu. Pre-nursing curriculum of sixty units was offered in 1939 under the Liberal Arts A.B. degree called Nursing Education that included courses that Barney launched. First officers were Ruth Kearns (president, fall 1937) and Aline Lordeaux (president, spring 1938).