Training of Nurses started sometimes after the establishment of the Kano city hospital (now known as MURTALAMUHAMMAD SPECIAPIST HOSPITAL). Student Nurses receive tuition in small numbers. In the beginning they were awarded a certificate by the Hospital Authority then and later by the Director of Medical Services from Lagos. This Hospital-based Nursing training was the practice all over the country until the enactment of the Nurses ordinance in 1948.

With the enactment of the Nurses ordinance of 1948, the then colonial administration decided to introduce a uniform standard of Nursing Education all over the country. At the initial stage, four Nursing preliminary training centers were established in Nigeria. These centers were in Kano city, Aba, Ibadan and Lagos. The centers exclude schools established and run by missionary and other voluntary agencies. In all these centers, preliminary nursing courses were offered and students, who qualified from these centers, went for an additional three-year basic Nursing courses in approved hospitals.

Government sponsored products of Kano Nursing preliminary training schools were deployed to Kaduna, Zaria and Jos. In addition, Katsina and Makurdi were added to the list much later. Candidates from kano and other native authorities were deployed to city hospital Kano, where they continue their three-year training.

When the school was first established, it was using part of the present Radiology Department of Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, until 1950 when it was realized that the school was then temporarily transferred to the premises presently occupied by the Shekara Girls Senior Secondary School Kano, which was originally built as an infectious disease hospital. The school finally moved to its then permanent site just across the road which is presently occupied by the General Outpatient Department of Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital Kano.

The school complex then had separate units for training of Nurses and the dispensary Attendants.

With the creation of Kano state in 1968 and following the takeover of the school from ICSA (Interim Common Services Agency) in 1970, approval was given by the Nursing Council of Nigeria to upgrade it to a full pledge school of Nursing. It then became mandatory by the Nurses Decree of 1970 to admit only secondary school leavers. The school therefore started recruiting secondary school leavers with attempted WASC certificates or its equivalent in 1972, but years later, admission requirement was upgraded to passes in 5 subjects (including English language and a relevant science subject) at no more than 2 sittings. But later, in the 80's the requirement was upgraded to five credits for the aforementioned subjects.

The school of State enrolled Nurses (established in 1970) which was later changed to preliminary Midwifery School in 1974, at Danbatta. The clinical schools in Hadeja and Birnin Kudu then, were institutions governed by School of Nursing Kano. Their tutors were selected from the School of Nursing. In 1977, the school started a shortened (18 months) Nursing program for registered Midwives. The first set qual1977, the May 1978. Intake for this category of students was then bi-annual, until in 1986 when the admission changed to a yearly intake.

Due to rapidly increasing Nursing man-power demands of the state, the need for establishing a new School Of Nursing was conceived in 1976 and on the 1st September, 1989, formal lecture started in the present permanent site of school of Nursing and Midwifery, New Hospital Road Gyadi-Gyadi Kano. The new school was officially commissioned during the tenure of the former Kano state Governor, Col. Idris Garba by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Former president and commander in chief of the armed forces of the federal Republic of Nigeria) on the 23rd of November 1989.

The Kano State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Kano was later established in May,2012. The college comprises of seven (7) schools, in which school of Nursing, Kano is among.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE HEADS OF THE SCHOOL FROM INCEPTION TO DATE ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. Mr. William Fream (1954-1963) a British.
2. Mr. Frank M. (1964-1965) a British.
3. Mr. Emmisah (1966-1967) a Ghanaian.
4. Late Alh. Muhammad Adamu (1970-1978) first indigenous principal.
5. Alh. Kassimu Aliyu (1978-1986).
6. Late Alh. Malami Mahmud (1986-1987; 1992).
7. Late Alh. Sale Sule (1987-1992).
8. Alh. Salele Abdul (1988-1992).
9. Alh. Abdussalam Ibrahim (1992-1995).
10. Alh. Ibrahim Wada (1995-1996)
11. Alh. Gambo Ahmad Muhammad (1996-2005).
12. Late Alh. Saidu Muhammad Fagge (2005-2013)
13. Alh. Musa Ibrahim Dakata (2013-2015).
14. Hajia. Mairo Sa'id Muhammad (2015 to date).