Eva Bateman Noles, RN Eva Noles, an ambitious and courageous young woman who graduated from Hutchinson Central High School in the 1930s, enrolled as the first African-American student at the Buffalo City Hospital School of Nursing. As the first Black nurse to train in Buffalo, she graduated at the top of her class in 1940 and pursued a distinguished career as a registered nurse at Meyer Memorial and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. After earning her bachelor of science degree in nursing and a master’s degree in education from the University at Buffalo, she became the director of nursing at RPCI. Ms. Noles founded the New York State Nurses Week in 1970 and served on the NYS Board of Nursing and the American Nurses Association. After her retirement, she continued to work as a volunteer with the American Red Cross, as a nurse trainer and home care supervisor, and as the author of several books about prevailing over racism and the African-American experience. Eva B. Noles, RN, died in 2015. Eva Bateman Noles, 1939. Eva B. Noles, 1985 New Nurses Residence, Buffalo City Hospital, 1930. Reproduced by permission of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York. Buffalo City Hospital, 1930s. Reproduced by permission of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York. 26 Also in the 1930s, Buffalo City Hospital received the full and unqualified approval of the American College of Surgeons as being acceptable for graduate training in surgery and surgical specialties. With this designation, the hospital was the only institution in Buffalo and one of only five outside of New York City to be so recognized. City Hospital instituted a three-year residency program in surgery, medicine, and allied specialties. Among the residents, there was a gradual increase in responsibility for patient care, depending on the abilities of the resident and the cooperation of the chief resident and attending surgeon. The hospital was also approved by the American Medical Association for a student physicians’ teaching program and the AMA ranked it among the best-staffed and highest credentialed hospitals in the country. But it wasn’t until 1947 that the hospital’s school of nursing became the area’s first to go co-educational and provide a course of study for male nurses during the senior year of their required curriculum. Not surprisingly, prospective male student nurses came from throughout New York State to study in Buffalo. In the early history of medicine, of course, all nurses were men. A hospital that makes house calls. During the Great Depression, Dr. Goodale developed an extensive home care service that included home visits by the staff of the hospital. Many physicians who were unable to sustain their practices during the Depression were employed by the hospital. By 1940, the hospital’s doctors and nurses were making nearly 2,500 house calls a year under the rubric of community nursing. It was during this period that City Hospital opened the first blood bank in Buffalo and possibly the only one in the U.S. outside of Chicago and Philadelphia. The blood bank eliminated the frantic effort to get blood in emergencies when oftentimes 20 or 25 persons were tested before blood of the right type and untainted by disease was found. This assured that a two-week supply of blood would be available at all times. Buffalo City Hospital 1918-1939