UA-Sponsored Nursing Hall of Fame Set for Oct. 9

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Twelve people, including the director of a World Health Organization center, a woman who advised four U.S. presidents on health care issues of the elderly, and a hospital administrator who developed an innovative patient classification system, will be inducted in the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame, established by The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing.

The inductees will be honored Thursday, Oct. 9.

“This event gives us an opportunity to recognize some of those who have brought honor and fame to both nursing and our state,” said Dr. Sara Barger, dean of the UA Capstone College of Nursing and event emcee. “They have bettered lives, both through the patients and nursing students they have touched, individually, and through the advancements they have brought to the health care profession.”

Those to be inducted into the 2003 class are:

Dr. Kathryn Barnett, who pioneered therapeutic touch and established one of the first nursing doctoral programs in the nation at Texas Woman’s University and who was the founding dean of Auburn University Montgomery School of Nursing, where she served for 17 years;

Dr. Rachel Booth, dean of The University of Alabama School of Nursing at UAB and director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for International Nursing, and who has served as a consultant to numerous universities and foreign countries on leadership, nursing education, program evaluation and advanced nursing practices;

Dr. Charlie Dickson, the first African American Registered Nurse to serve as president of the Alabama Board of Nursing, and whose legislative efforts resulted in the implementation of reasonable laws for mandatory continuing education for nurses’ license renewal;

Evelyn Hardy, who independently sought financing to convert a Tuscaloosa house – across the street from her own home – into a nursing home where she and her mother would later rotate working 12 hour shifts to take care of the patients, and where she is still on call 24 hours a day;

Dr. Mary Harper, who has twice won the surgeon general’s Medal of Honor as an internationally recognized expert on issues of aging and mental health needs, and who has established research and development centers throughout the country and now spearheads a program for caregivers, under the auspices of the Rosalyn Carter Institute for Human Development;

Ruth Harrell, who retired from the Alabama Department of Public Health, where she served as director of nursing from 1987-1993, and who now co-directs the Southern Rural Access program, a Robert Wood Johnson funded program designed to improve access to health care for rural people;

Mary Catherine King, who served for four decades in various positions, including director, at St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing in Birmingham. King promoted the importance of diplomas schools of nursing and their emphasis on nursing skills learned at the bedside. Retired, King is now a driving force behind that school of nursing’s alumni association and scholarship program;

Dr. Kathleen Ladner, who serves as vice president of patient care services at Baptist Princeton in Birmingham and who leads the Baptist Princeton recruitment and retention of collaboration of nursing, radiology technologists and pharmacists; she has held faculty appointments in nursing at Samford University, UA, and the University of South Alabama;

Dr. Linda Olivet, professor emeritus in the UA Capstone College of Nursing, who has served in numerous capacities at UA, including director of graduate studies and assistant dean in the College, and who now provides educational programs on nursing and health care through UA’s College of Continuing Studies;

Dr. Hildagarde Reynolds, who served two separate terms on the state’s Board of Nursing, providing leadership critical to the impetus for a significantly revised Nurse Practice Act. Her impact on nursing also includes the development of associate degree programs and expansion of baccalaureate programs;

Surpora Thomas, who is sometimes referred to as “Ms. Children’s Hospital,” and who has nearly 40 years of experience at the Birmingham facility; she developed an innovative patient classification system, and its success has been noted in hospitals as far away as Canada and she also initiated, in 1982, a pre-admissions screening program still in use;

Maxine Walker, who has devoted almost 60 years to nursing and nursing education ranging from helping educate nursing students, to assisting the elderly with medication and aiding cancer patients. Walker joined what would become DCH Regional Medical Center in 1955 and advanced to become director of DCH’s nursing school, and she later helped start the new nursing program at UA.

A gallery honoring these and previous Hall of Fame inductees is permanently located in the UA Capstone College of Nursing. Members of the College’s Board of Visitors submit nominations for induction into the Hall of Fame to the Hall’s selection committee. The selection committee reviews nominations and determines, by ballot, those to be inducted.