Sophia University College was established in 1884 by Her Majesty Queen Sophia. Until then only deaconesses and army nurses had been educated in Sweden, but Her Majesty the Queen’s idea was that young Swedish women should have the possibility to obtain a qualified nursing education in their own country.

 

Her ambition was that well educated nurses eventually should contribute to raising the quality of Swedish health care and she was very familiar with the excellent nursing school that Florence Nightingale had established at St Thomas´ Hospital in London. She believed in the need for a nursing school on a Christian basis following the foreign example.

 

H. M. Queen Sophia rented an apartment on Gråbergsgatan (later renamed Upplandsgatan) in Stockholm for the new nursing school. The small Nurses´ Home was inaugurated on New Year’s Eve 1883 and the first four students could begin their education. Alfhild Ehrenborg, who had received her education from Florence Nightingale in England, became the first principal of the school. The student nurses practised at the Sabbatsberg Hospital and they graduated after approx. ten months. They had by that time practised on surgical, medical and gynaecological wards both during days and nights. Miss Ehrenborg acted as principal of the school, as a teacher and as chief nurse on the ward. Lectures given by doctors constituted an important part of the education.

 

Ottonie Adelborg, the schools first student

 

In the spring of 1885, H. M. Queen Sophia initiated a small four-bedded ward near the Nurses´ Home. The ward was intended for "travelling patients or people who were ill and could not receive the care and comfort they needed in their homes, but preferred a more private accommodation due to the possibility to choose the doctor in whom they had most confidence instead of public health care institutions ". This ward became the embryo of the Sophiahemmet Hospital, i.e. a small private ward aiming at providing the students with training in good health care, which at that time hardly could be provided at the Sabbatsberg Hospital.

As the number of nurses increased, the news of the nursing school and the nurses educated there spread out into the whole country and senior physicians at the provincial hospitals requested chief nurses. The first nurses were sent outside Stockholm as early as in 1885.

 

In 1886 the education moved to the Serafimer Hospital, a collaboration that in practice lasted until 1940 when the Karolinska Hospital was established and the clinical education in most specialities was moved there.

 

Since the establishment of the nursing school Her Majesty the Queen had been aware that the education of qualified health care required an educational hospital, where the principles she believed in would be practised without protests from doctors who often were ignorant.
The Sophiahemmet Hospital was inaugurated in 1889 after much hesitation from Her Majesty the Queen as to the use of her name. It was characteristic for her that she wished that the inscription in the entrance hall of the hospital should read ”All in the honour of God”.

 

H M King Oscar and H. M. Queen Sophia financed the construction of the hospital. In the deed of gift dated 21st January 1890, it says e.g. that the hospital should constitute an organic part of the nursing school with the aim to provide convenient health care needed by all social classes at the same time as it should serve as the fundamental educational institution of the students.
The Sophiahemmet Hospital has remained the mother hospital of the nursing school since 1889, but in addition the school has always collaborated with a large general hospital for the education of the students and later on also with various specialized hospitals.

 

The education increased successively and comprised three years in the spring of 1905. Already from the beginning, the nursing school had a skilful pedagogic leadership. The first nursing instructor in Sweden, Sally Pettersson, Sophia nurse herself, was appointed in 1893. In 1905 the first reading course, comprising one month´s education outside the wards, was provided in nursing care by the nursing instructor and in anatomy by the in house doctor. Physical training and home economics were included in the education. Earlier the education had been provided parallel to the practical health care work and the lectures by doctors had mostly been given in the evening.

The first textbook for nurses, "Lectures for nursing students at the Sophiahemmet Nursing School", was published already in 1899.

Valborg Nordin with some students in 1910

 

Later a third reading course was added to the education, which then was increased to 3,5 years. The nursing education was reformed in 1967 and then included five terms (105 weeks) at the Sophiahemmet Nursing School as well as at other nursing schools in Sweden. A supervisory position required further education in some specialized field of health care. During some years further education in medical and surgical health care was provided at the nursing school. A shorter education (three terms) was arranged at the nursing school during 1975-82 for assistant nurses with a regular education and for students, who had passed the nursing programme at upper secondary school.

In 1977 the nursing education obtained the status of a university college education. A new educational reform occurred in 1982. The health care programme (the nursing education) then required a two-year nursing programme at upper secondary school and a basic eligibility for university college studies. The education comprised 80 points.

In 1993 the nursing education became a three-year education. Since 1983 the students receive their clinical education at the Danderyd Hospital and other units within the northeastern health care area and at the Sophiahemmet Hospital.

Sonja Weitner 1997, 2000 (Headmaster 1980-1996)