The 27th Texas Legislature founded Texas Woman's College as the Girls Industrial School in Denton, Texas,in 1901, and graduated its first class in 1904. Graduate studies were initiated in 1930 and the first doctoral degree was awarded in 1953. It created Texas' first nationally accredited nursing school with Parkland Hospital, Dallas, in 1954. The name was changed to the College of Industrial Arts in 1905, Texas State College for Women in 1934, and finally Texas Woman's University in 1957. Men were admitted to select programs in 1972, then universally in 1994. The nursing doctoral program is the largest in the country.
NURS 6903.61 Historical Research: Lessons Learned in Hiroshima was offered during the fall 2014 semester as a Special Topics Study Abroad opportunity. The class was an opportunity for nursing students to explorehistorical research as a change from quantitative and methodological methods emphasized in the hard sciences. The topic for fall 2014, taught by Dr. Sandra Cesario, was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Postwar research on the short-term and long-term effects of the bombings have made significant contributions to disaster response, ethics, environmental studies and occupational safety, and radiation therapy. Dr. Cesario and five students visited historical sites in Hiroshima Prefecture, including the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Five-Storied Pagoda at Miyajima, the "A-Bomb Dome", and Mt. Misen Observatory. Students kept travel journals about their experiences and feelings during the trip.