Barbara Nichols, DL(h), DSc(h), PedD(h), MSN, RN, FAAN, a nursing trailblazer and transformational leader, died following a nursing career spanning more than 60 years, according to a July 22 American Nurses Association news release.
Ms. Nichols served as the first Black president of the American Nurses Association in 1978 and was re-elected in 1980. She was also the first Black president of a state nurses association when she became president of the Wisconsin Nurses Association in 1970.
During her ANA presidency, Ms. Nichols committed to setting baccalaureate education as the standard for entry into practice, a decision she said was “highly divisive, but essential for the recognition of nursing as a true profession.” She also spearheaded ANA’s collaboration with the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, ensuring nurses were involved in national policymaking.
Ms. Nichols was inspired to become a nurse by a public health nurse and family friend who taught her to use a toy nurse’s kit on her dolls. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and earned her master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was one of two Black students admitted. Her first nursing job was at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she was the only Black registered nurse on staff. Ms. Nichols went on to serve as head nurse at the U.S. Naval Hospital in St. Albans, New York City, before returning to civilian nursing.
“Barbara Nichols redefined nursing leadership as we know it,” Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, RN, president of the American Nurses Association, said in the release. “She played a pivotal role in shifting the profession from the margins to the center of health policy and equity, and she did it with grace, grit and unmatched wisdom.”
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