When Dr. William Estes established the St. Luke's School of Nursing in 1884, he modeled it after the nursing school at Bellevue Hospital in New York, NY.

At Bellevue, Estes observed superior nursing service and generally superior patient treatment compared to other New York City hospitals. At the time, St. Luke's was the fourth hospital in the country to establish a school of nursing. Today, St. Luke's School of Nursing is the oldest nursing school in the United States.

Nine students were accepted the first year of the program with graduates including Minnie Agnes Ernst, of Bethlehem and Minerva Anne Jordan, of Riegelsville. During the school's early days, students were taught the general principles of nursing, how to observe and record symptoms, how to manage helpless patients and also received instruction on how to bandage and to make beds.

The reputation of the school flourished during the 1920s and 30s.

The explosion of technical knowledge following World War II offered nurses the opportunity to specialize in a particular area in nursing.

In 1962, the school was awarded full accreditation from the National League for Nursing and remains fully accredited to the present.

In August 1972, St. Luke's School of Nursing admitted its first male students.

Throughout the last decades of the 20th century, St. Luke's remained flexible to the needs of the community, at different times offering an evening-weekend curriculum to help meet the shortage of nurses and changing the curriculum to incorporate computer-assisted documentation and evidence-based practice.

More than 4,000 nurses have graduated from St. Luke's School of Nursing, with current estimates of living alumni at 2,700.

College credits in science and liberal arts now are prerequisites to entering the nursing program. During the 20-month nursing curriculum, students receive 900 hours of clinical practice in a variety of health care settings.