Frontier Nursing University

Frontier Nursing University, formerly Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing is a private non-profit graduate school located in Hyden, Kentucky, United States. The Leslie County school was established by the Frontier Nursing Service in 1939. Mrs. Mary Breckinridge, the driving force of the graduate school, founded the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925 as a demonstration project in the care of mother and child. The Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery graduated its first class in 1940. In 1970, the school was renamed the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing with the opening of the nation's first family nurse practitioner education program. In 1989/1990, as a joint effort of the Frontier Nursing Service, Case Western Reserve University, the Maternity Center Association, and the National Association of Childbearing Centers, the Community-based Nurse-midwifery Education Program was born. Hence, Frontier became the first graduate school of nurse-midwifery to offer distance education. In 2005, the Community-Based Women's Health Care Nurse Practitioner option was added. In 2011, Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing became Frontier Nursing University to underscore the distinct graduate level programs while reflecting the institution's history and vision. In that same year, FNU was ranked nationally by U.S. News & World Report as 1st among graduate schools of nurse-midwifery and 14th among family nurse practitioner programs.