Florence Wald
| Florence Wald | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Florence Sophie Schorske April 19, 1917 New York City |
| Died | November 8, 2008 (aged 91) Branford, Connecticut |
| Alma mater |
Mount Holyoke College Yale School of Nursing |
| Occupation | Dean of the Yale School of Nursing |
| Known for | Pioneering the American hospice movement |
Florence Wald (April 19, 1917 – November 8, 2008) was an American nurse, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing, and largely credited as "the mother of the American hospice movement". She led the founding of Connecticut Hospice, the first hospice program in the United States. Late in life, Wald became interested in the provision of hospice care within prisons.
Wald was born as Florence Sophie Schorske in New York City on April 19, 1917. Due to a chronic respiratory ailment, she spent several months as a child in a hospital, This hospitalization experience led her to pursue a career in nursing. Wald received a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1938 and an M.N. from Yale School of Nursing in 1941.
After World War II, she became a staff nurse with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a research assistant at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was an instructor at the Rutgers University school of nursing. She received a second master's degree from Yale University in mental health nursing in 1956 and became an instructor at the school's the nursing program. She became Dean of Yale School of Nursing in 1959, after being named to the position on an acting basis the previous year. A short time later, she reconnected with Henry Wald, who she met initially while she was conducting a study with the United States Army Signal Corps. The couple married later that year.
Wald's interest in the care of the terminally ill was piqued in 1963 when she attended a lecture at Yale University presented by the English physician Cicely Saunders, an innovator in the field who later created St. Christopher's Hospice, the world's first purpose-built hospice. Dr. Saunders spoke that day about her methods of using palliative care for terminally ill cancer patients, with the intention of allowing those in the latest stages of their disease to focus on their personal relationships and prepare themselves for death. An "indelible impression" was made by Dr. Saunders, with Wald noting that "until then I had thought nurses were the only people troubled by how a terminal illness was treated".
...
Wikipedia