Samford’s University’s Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing will celebrate its 90th birthday this year. The nursing school opened as Birmingham Baptist Hospital School of Nursing Jan. 22, 1922.
Nursing school Dean Nena F. Sanders will speak at a program kicking off a year-long birthday observance Monday, Jan. 23, at 12 p.m. in the plaza of Dwight and Lucille Beeson Center for the Healing arts, the nursing school building.
Nursing school students, faculty and staff are invited to attend. The anniversary theme will be “Celebrate the Living Legacy.”
The nursing school was accredited by the National League for Nursing in 1955, the first in the state to earn such accreditation. It joined Samford University in 1973 following a merger agreement with Birmingham Baptist Medical Centers.
With an enrollment of approximately 700 students, the school offers the bachelor of science in nursing, master of science in nursing and doctor of nursing practice degrees. The school’s passing rate on the NCLEX nurse licensure exam is more than 90 percent, which is higher than the national average for nursing schools.
The school is named for Ida V. Moffett, a legendary nurse who led the program during its early years at Birmingham Baptist Hospital.