University of Nevada, Las Vegas. School of Nursing

In the 1950s and 1960s, Nevada experienced a nursing shortage, largely as a result of the lack of nursing schools in the state and rapid population growth. To address the problem, the Nevada Board of Regents approved the implementation of an associate degree program at the campus of Nevada Southern University (now known as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas) in 1965, and that fall the first students were admitted. The program was initially administered by the Orvis School of Nursing at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), but by January 1966, control was transferred to Nevada Southern. The first students graduated in spring of 1967.

Because Nevada Southern only offered an associate degree program, students were given the opportunity to take baccalaureate-level classes from UNR via the Intercampus Television Project. In 1969 NSU became the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and in 1971 UNLV began offering a full baccalaureate program in nursing. In 1983 the Board of Regents approved the Master of Science in Nursing program at UNLV, and it admitted its first students in 1984. The associates program was phased out beginning in 1987 and ending in 1989, leaving only the baccalaureate and masters programs. The nursing program established its own alumni association in 1991.

As enrollment grew, the Department of Health Sciences needed a bigger building, and in 1992 the Health Sciences Building was dedicated, and the nursing program settled in on the fourth floor. The department also added the Family Nurse Practitioner graduate program that same year, and alumna Dr. Janet Quillian, from the first associates class, served as its director.

At the start of the new century the department continued to grow, both in number of programs and in student enrollment. In response to another nursing shortage in 2001, the Nevada legislature mandated the school double its nursing enrollment. Year-round classes began in 2003, the total length of the program was shortened, and the lengths of semesters were standardized. In 2004 the department was renamed the UNLV School of Nursing. In 2005 the program welcomed its first PhD students, who began teaching baccalaureate-level classes as part of their PhD requirements. The UNLV School of Nursing remains one of the primary sources for training nurses in Southern Nevada.

Source: "A History of the UNLV School of Nursing," University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Nursing. https://www.unlv.edu/nursing/about/history