West Suburban College of Nursing

Wheaton College and West Suburban College of Nursing entered into an agreement on March 28, 1946 to provide programs together. The agreement provided two different programs, a diploma program and a degree program.

The diploma program, offered by West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, had Wheaton College professors teaching basic courses in the arts and sciences. After three years of study students were granted a diploma in nursing. This program admitted its last students in August 1981. A total of 452 students matriculated in this diploma program.

The degree program comprised diploma students that were granted entrance into the degree program and Wheaton College. After completing an additional 60 hours of study students were granted a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing education. 519 students graduated from this program with 55 others graduating with non-nursing degrees.

The program, which had a strong missionary focus, attracted students from all over the United States, including daughters of missionary parents abroad. In the 1950s, over 50% of the missionary nurses serving across the United States and in foreign countries were graduates of West Suburban Hospital School for Nurses and the Wheaton program (the affiliation with Wheaton ended in the early 1980s). (citation)