Yale School of Nursing

The Yale School of Nursing (YSN) is the nursing school of Yale University, located in West Haven, Connecticut. It is among the top 20 graduate nursing schools in the country, according to the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report (2024). In addition to the top 20 tier overall ranking, the school’s Advanced Practice Nursing specialties in Psychiatric-Mental Health and Adult-Gerontology Primary Care had the fifth highest scores nationally as ranked by peer institutions. Yale’s School of Nursing remains among the most selective in the nation, with only 15% of applicants estimated to be accepted.

Established in 1923 in New Haven, Connecticut, YSN moved in 2013 to Yale University's West Campus, located in West Haven and Orange, CT.

Academics
Degrees offered include the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing, and the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree. The school of nursing offers degrees in several Nurse Practitioner (NP) specialties such as Family NP, Adult-Gerontology Primary/Acute Care NP, Pediatric Primary/Acute Care NP, Psychiatric-Mental Health NP, Women's Health NP, and Nurse-Midwifery. The DNP degree has two tracks: Post-Master's Clinical Practice and Healthcare Leadership, Systems, and Policy.

The school has the Graduate Entry Prespecialty in Nursing (GEPN) program, which is intended for students with a non-nursing bachelor's degree to directly become APRNs. Joint degree programs are available with Yale School of Public Health (MSN/MPH) and Yale Divinity School (MSN/MA). In addition to degree programs, YSN offers pre/post-doctoral research training and post-master's certificates in various NP specialities.

History
The Yale School of Nursing was founded in 1923 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. It celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2013.

The Yale School of Nursing was the first School of Nursing to adopt the strong professional standards from the Goldmark Report of 1923 which it had sponsored with the Rockefeller Foundation to determine the best form of nurse training in 1918. It had its own Dean, faculty, budget and required a standardized degree. Annie Warburton Goodrich was appointed the first Dean of YSN and was the first woman Dean at Yale University.

In 1934, bachelor's degrees were required for admission and Yale Corporation authorized the Master of Nursing degree. This program, allowing students with no prior background in nursing graduate entry, would continue until 1956 when the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program began. The MSN required students to have a prior background in nursing in order to gain entry into the program. The Nurse Practitioner track within the MSN degree was established in 1971 with the offering of the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner specialty. This was expanded in 1972, when the Family Nurse Practitioner specialty began. By 1975 YSN offered 10 specialty programs and tracks, and was at the vanguard of the education of nurse practitioners at the graduate level along with clinical nurse specialists and nurse-midwives. In 1974, YSN reopened admission for students with no prior background in nursing through its Three-Year Program for Non-Nurse College Graduates (later called the GEPN program).

Deans

 * Annie W. Goodrich (1923–1934)
 * Effie Jane Taylor (1934–1944)
 * Elizabeth Seelye Bixler Torrey (1944–1959)
 * Florence Schorske Wald (1959–1966)
 * Margaret Gene Arnstein (1967–1972)
 * Donna Kaye Diers (1972–1984)
 * Judith Belliveau Krauss (1985–1998)
 * Catherine L. Gilliss (1998–2004)
 * Margaret Grey (2005–2015)
 * Ann Kurth (2016–present)

Notable faculty

 * Lucy Conant
 * Donna Diers
 * James Dickoff
 * Rhetaugh Graves Dumas
 * Elizabeth Gordon Fox
 * Annie W. Goodrich
 * Virginia Avenel Henderson
 * Patricia James
 * Tish Knobf
 * Mark Lazenby
 * Ruth McCorkle
 * Douglas Olsen
 * Ida Jean Orlando
 * Rachel Robinson
 * Florence Schorske Wald
 * Ernestine Wiedenbach
 * Helen Varney Burst
 * Linda Honan
 * Loren Fields