History
As the longest provider of nurses in Boston, Labouré College of Healthcare has been educating healthcare professionals for more than 125 years. The college's roots date back to 1892 with the opening of the Carney Hospital Training School for Nurses in South Boston, Massachusetts. The school was sponsored by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. In addition to Carney Hospital Training School for Nurses, the Daughters of Charity also operated St. John Hospital School of Nursing - established in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1892, and the St. Margaret Hospital School of Nursing, established in 1903 in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.
In 1951, the Daughters of Charity merged the three schools into a single institution. This institution became known as the Catherine Labouré School of Nursing, the first independent, regional, three-year diploma program in New England. Classes were held on the campus of Carney Hospital in South Boston until 1954 when Catherine Labouré School of Nursing moved to the site of the new Carney Hospital in Dorchester.
In 1971, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts amended the charter of the school of nursing to provide for associate degree-granting authority in nursing and allied health. That same year, Catherine Labouré School of Nursing became officially Catherine Labouré Junior College. In 1976, the consortium between the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital, Boston University School of Medicine, and Catherine Labouré Junior College was formed. What has now become the longest-running accredited Neurodiagnostic program began that summer.
In 1984, Catherine Labouré Junior College changed its name to Catherine Labouré College. In 1993, the name was formally changed to Labouré College. In 2008, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts amended the college's charter to provide Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree-granting authority. In addition, the first-of-its kind hybrid Intraoperative Neuromonitoring program began in May 2016, and is currently one of only two accredited programs in the country.
The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul sponsored the educational mission of the institution from 1892 to 1997. In 1997, the Daughters of Charity transferred control of the college to Caritas Christi, a network of non-profit Catholic healthcare entities sponsored by the Archdiocese of Boston. Labouré College joined Steward Health Care in 2010. In 2013, Labouré College disaffiliated from Steward Health Care and moved to a new campus at 303 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts. Through the various changes in the college’s corporate structure, Labouré has maintained its independent, non-profit institutional status under the oversight of its own Board of Directors, and changed its name to Labouré College of Healthcare in 2021.