Celebrating NYS nurses’ contributions: inspirational, innovative, and influential
National Nurses Week began in October 1954 when President Eisenhower, encouraged by Dorothy Sutherland of the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare and Rep. Frances P. Bolton, signed a proclamation that nurses should be recognized. This was also a nod to the centennial recognition of the Crimean War and Florence Nightingale’s entry into the fray on May 6, 1854. National Student Nurses Day is May 8th and Nurses Day is celebrated internationally on May 12th in honor of Nightingale’s birthday. So, now we have Nurses Week celebrated from May 6th to May 12th each year.
Now let’s turn to New York and learn about some of our nurses that have influenced, inspired, and innovated the profession and nationally been recognized as members of the American Nurses Association’s Hall of Fame. Of the 90 nurses currently in the Hall, 33 are from or have connections to New York State. While space precludes discussion of all these nurses, here are some worthy examples: a visionary nurse, saw the plight of families living in NYC’s Henry Street tenements and recognized the need to provide nursing care and health education by nurses who lived alongside those needing care. The Henry Street Settlement Nursing Services morphed into the Visiting Nurses Association of NY. Wald founded two organizations: The National Organization for Public Health Nursing and the Children’s Bureau. The concept of linking children’s education and providing them with health care was credited to Wald. She advocated strongly for placing public health nurses into schools to provide interventions and health teaching to children from the tenements attending public schools.
has had a diverse and distinguished career influencing nursing education, men pursuing nursing careers, and military nursing and care outcomes. Piemonte held the position of National Student Nurses Association (NSNA) Executive Director from 1985-1996, the first doctoral-prepared male nurse to do so in NSNA’s history. Piemonte is an expert on fundraising and philanthropy, having consulted with various organizations and served NYU and Villanova in growing their programs. Long Island University, Columbia University, NYU, and Teachers College (NYC) have bestowed honorary awards upon him. In addition to ANA’s Hall of Fame, Dr. Piemonte was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing asa Living Legend.
is most frequently and rightly identified as a Kentucky nurse. What many people do not know is that Mary Breckenridge was a widow in 1907 when she entered the St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing (NYC) and graduated in 1910. She always wanted to return to Kentucky to nurse her kith, kin, and neighbors and did so. However, she realized that she needed more education, taking advanced studies at Teachers College (Columbia University) and traveling to England to study midwifery. Completing her additional studies, she recruited monies, supplies, and nurses to support her vision for establishing the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS). In 1925, the FNS opened its doors and Breckenridge educated and trained midwives to support their patients—all the while traveling from patient to