HU School of Nursing recognizes National Nurses Week

Members of the HU School of Nursing Faculty 

The Hampton University School of Nursing (SON) started off the American Nurses Association National Nurses Week by wearing all white and preparing for the posthumous induction of an alumna into the HU Nursing Hall of Fame. The week is celebrated throughout the country May 6-12, and this year’s theme is “Nurses Leading the Way.”

HU SON Dean Dr. Deborah E. Jones said the week is an opportunity to highlight the important contributions nurses have made, and continue to make in the world.

“Hampton University is proud to take part in the recognition of National Nurses Week, and to honor one of our very own nursing professionals who contributed so much to the field,” she said. “She championed and worked in organizations to achieve independent practice and prescriptive authority for nurses long before they became realities in the delivery of health care.”

On May 9, Dr. Lois Price Spratlen ‘54 will be posthumously inducted into the HU Nursing Hall of Fame. She is only the 12th alum to be added into the group. Upon her death in 2013, Dr. Spratlen bequeathed over $1 million to the HUSON. The funding is being used to establish The Lois Price Spratlen Endowed Chair (LPSEC) within the school, and the selected professor will focus on mental and community health research. Dr. Spratlen spent most of her career as a faculty member in psychosocial nursing at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Additionally, in April, her widow, Dr. Thaddeus H. Spratlen, provided the funding to establish “The Nursing Class of 1954 Endowed Scholarship” for $25,000 in his wife’s honor.

“Because of the many strides of nurses that have come before us, we owe it to them to be mindful and appreciative of their contributions,” Jones said. “For nursing pioneers like Lois Price Spratlen, Florence Nightingale and Mary Eliza Mahoney who came before us, this week is another opportunity to remember and give thanks.”