Celebrating a Century of Greatness Paying tribute to Loretta Ford as the nursing legend turns 100
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n the last Sunday of 2020, Loretta Ford, EdD, RN, PNP, NP-C, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, walked out of the front door of her Florida home and was greeted by a parade of passing golf carts. The nursing legend was one day away from her 100th birthday, and her friends and neighbors surprised her by putting on a physically distant celebration. As longtime friends and former colleagues watched on Zoom, Ford opened gifts and watched a stream of golf carts decorated with balloons and banners putter by. One cart was filled with banners representing the University of Rochester School of Nursing, where Ford built on an already prominent role in the profession by becoming the school’s founding dean. But there was also the somewhat curious appearance of a Susan B. Anthony impersonator and a host of other suffragettes. Curious, that is, unless you’d spent any time around Ford in the run up to her landmark year. “One of the things that Loretta was excited about was that she had two things left on her bucket list: turning 100 years old and celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in the U.S.,” said Kathy Rideout, EdD, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, dean of the UR School of Nursing. “I think it was a little bit of a sobering moment to really recognize how significant her 100th birthday was, but it was really an important day for her. It was also a really good day for us to be able to celebrate her as a person and all the work that she has done.” A few days later Rideout spoke to Ford by phone and reminded her of her completed bucket list only to find out Ford was working on a new list for her next century.
The University of Rochester played a huge role in Ford’s career. Perhaps just as impactful as her work at the University of Colorado was Ford’s development of the Unification Model at the UR School of Nursing. Recruited in 1972 to be the first dean of the newly independent school of nursing and director of nursing at Strong Memorial Hospital, Ford bridged the two roles to create a unified model of nursing, which combined education, research, and clinical practice to form a more holistic approach to nursing and health care. “Her belief was that nurses in an academic unit needed not to be siloed, but they needed to focus not only on teaching, but on research and clinical practice,” Rideout said. “She thought that it was critical that whoever was educating nurses was still practicing as clinicians and also involved in research. 22 NURSING 2021 Volume 1
The University of Rochester played a huge role in the career of nursing legend Loretta Ford. Not only did she serve as the founding dean of the newly independent School of Nursing, but here she developed the Unification Model, more tightly connecting the roles of educators, researchers, and clinicians.
And that became the unification model, blending education, practice, and research with each mission informing each other bi-directionally. And we still operate that way today.” Ford retired from the University in 1986, but her shadow still looms large on both sides of Crittenden Boulevard. As Ford’s 100th birthday approached, Rideout spearheaded planning for a celebration fitting of her stature in the profession. But then the pandemic hit. The new plan was to start a birthday card drive. The school
