Nursing legend Loretta Ford to visit UB

Loretta Ford, founder of the nurse practitioner role in the nursing profession, will visit UB to deliver a guest lecture to the campus community on the evolution of the role.

Ford, an internationally renowned nursing leader who is credited with transforming health care and co-founding the first nurse practitioner (NP) education program, will present “Evolution of the NP Role: Fifty Years of Innovation.”

The event will take place from 1-2 p.m. April 26 in 114 Wende Hall, UB South Campus. Ford also will lead a discussion on the future of advanced practice nursing with alumni, faculty, staff, students and community leaders on the same day at 5 p.m. in 111 Wende Hall. A reception will follow the discussion.

Guests are asked to RSVP by April 19.

“I was privileged to be a student of Loretta Ford, whose vision of a new advanced practice nursing role — that she named the ‘nurse practitioner’ — revolutionized nursing and increased access to care for millions of people,” says Nancy Campbell-Heider, associate professor in the School of Nursing.

“In my view, she is the most transformative nursing leader since Florence Nightingale.”

Ford’s accomplishments began after she sought to develop an advanced-practice nursing role to increase access to health care for children and their families.

Along with Henry Silver, a pediatrician, she created the first pediatric nurse practitioner program at the University of Colorado in 1965. The curriculum was replicated by schools across the nation in other nursing specialties.

Ford later joined the University of Rochester as founding dean of the nursing school. She’s also served as a visiting professor at St. Luke's College of Nursing in Japan, the University of Washington and the University of Florida.

Now retired, Ford consults and lectures on the historical development of the nurse practitioner, and on issues in advanced nursing practice and health care policy.

She holds honorary doctorates from eight universities and has received a myriad of awards, including the Living Legend Award from the American Academy of Nursing, of which she is also a fellow. In 2011, Ford was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Ford earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, as well as a doctorate in education, from the University of Colorado.