Cabaniss, Sadie Heath, 1865-1921

Sadie Heath Cabaniss (October 9, 1865 – July 11, 1921) was a pioneer for nursing in Virginia and developed the first training school for nurses that followed the Nightingale plan. Her training school lives on to this day and is now the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition, Cabaniss was the founder of the Charter Member and First President of the Virginia State Association of Nurses (now the Virginia Nurses Association).Finally, she was the President and original member of the Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurse Founder of the Nurses Settlement, forerunner of the Instructive Visiting Nurses Association. Sadie Health Cabaniss was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame on July 1, 2002 at the ANA Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

BIRTH 9 Oct 1865 Petersburg, Petersburg City, Virginia, USA DEATH 11 Jul 1921 (aged 55) Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia, USA BURIAL Blandford Cemetery Petersburg, Petersburg City, Virginia, USA

<p> Highlights: Founder, Charter Member and First President of the Virginia State Association of Nurses (now the Virginia Nurses Association) First President and original member of the Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurses Founder of the Nurses Settlement, forerunner of the Instructive Visiting Nurses Association Organized the Old Dominion Training School for Nurses in the Nightingale method</p> <p>Birth Date: 1865-10-09 Birthplace: Petersburg, Virginia Death Date: 1921-07-11 Death Place: Richmond, Virginia</p> <p>Education: St. Timothy's School, Catonsville, Maryland, Graduated 1874 John Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland, Graduated 1893</p> <p>Nursing CV: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, Night Supervisor, 1893 Old Dominion Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, Supervisor of Operating Room Nurses and Superintendent Old Dominion Hospital Training School, 1895-1900 Nurses Settlement of Richmond, Virginia (later Instructive Visiting Nurses Association) 1900-1909 Hanover County, Virginia, Public Health Nurse, 1909 North Carolina State Health Department, ca. 1914 Nurses Settlement, St. Augustine, Florida, Director, ca. 1915 Westmoreland County, Virginia, Visiting Nurse, 1918</p>

<p>Sarah "Sadie" Heath Cabaniss (9 October 1865–11 July 1921), nurse, was born in Petersburg, the daughter of Charles J. Cabaniss, a retired lawyer, and Virginia Elizabeth Heath Cabaniss. Sadie Cabaniss, as she was called, grew up at Bothwell, the family residence in Dinwiddie County. After studying French, German, and Latin at home, she entered Mount Pisgah Academy in King William County at age twelve. Cabaniss wanted to go on to Vassar College after she graduated from the academy at the age of sixteen, but her parents, holding traditional views about the education of young women, sent her instead to Saint Timothy's School in Catonsville, Maryland. She taught as a governess near Tappahannock for one year and then returned to Mount Pisgah as an instructor for the next three years. Cabaniss never married, but about 1886 she informally adopted a nine-year-old child, Emily Baskerville, whom she raised and educated for the next ten years.</p> <p>Instructive Visiting Nurse Association The city of Richmond provided $150 to the Nurses' Settlement during its first year of operation, but the members had to rent out rooms and kitchen space to raise money for their expenses. In December 1901 the Woman's Club of Richmond invited the settlement to explain its mission at a meeting, and as a consequence Lila Hardaway Meade Valentine and several other members established the Instructive Visiting Nurse Association (IVNA) in February 1902 to support and expand the activities of the settlement. Cabaniss encouraged her colleagues to begin visiting nurse programs in Danville, Leesburg, and Newport News. In 1904 she helped organize the first tuberculosis dispensaries in Virginia, with separate clinics established for white and black patients in Richmond after the city's board of health assumed responsibility in 1906. In 1909 the IVNA won permission from the city of Richmond to place the first official nurse in a public school. </p> <p>In 1926 the graduate nurses of Virginia endowed a chair in Cabaniss's honor at the University of Virginia, and two years later the university's Department of Education established the Cabaniss Memorial School of Nursing Education. Until 1954 the school offered graduate courses in nursing education. The Medical College of Virginia dedicated Cabaniss Hall in 1928. In May 2001 Cabaniss was among the inaugural class inducted into the Virginia Nursing Hall of Fame. </p>

<p>Sadie Heath Cabaniss, daughter of Charles J. and Virginia R. Cabaniss, was born in Petersburg, Virginia on 9 October 1865. She received a classical education at home before attending St. Timothy's School in Catonsville, Maryland where she graduated in 1874. Following a brief time as governess and teacher, Cabaniss attended the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland. While at Hopkins, Cabaniss became acquainted with Isabel Hampton Robb. Upon graduation in 1893, Cabaniss held the position of night supervisor at the Johns Hopkins Hospital</p> <p>In 1895, Cabaniss became supervisor of the operating room at the Old Dominion Hospital connected to the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) in Richmond, Virginia. The MCV faculty asked Cabaniss to organize a training school for nurses. Cabaniss ran the school she organized on the Nightingale method of nursing education from 1895 until April of 1901. To respond to the needs of the sick poor in Richmond, Cabaniss and several of her former students from the Old Dominion Training School organized the Nurses' Settlement of Richmond in 1900. The group subsequently evolved into the Instructive Visiting Nurses Association (IVNA).</p> <p>Following the creation of the Nurses' Settlement, Cabaniess focues on the organization of trained nurses. She urged the formation of alumnea associations as various schools across the Commonwealth and in 1901 called members of the various associations to Richmond to organize the Virginia State Association of Nurses (now the Virginia Nurses Association) Cabaniss served as the first President and continued in the office until 1905. While serving as President, Cabaniss led the movement to secure licensing legislation to regulate nursing in Virginia</p> <p>Later in life, Cabaniss continued her work in public health in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. She returned to Virginia following World War I and worked in Virginia's northern neck area. Poor health forced her to retire from nursing work. Cabaniss died in Richmond on 11 July 1921.</p>