The Power of One
Never underestimate the power of one individual—one nurse--to change the world.
Two distinguished alums of the College of Nursing received the highest honor the college can bestow on its graduates Nov. 2. Both 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award Winner Kathleen Kaufman and Young Alumni Award Winner Amy Hartman urged the crowd gathered for Alumni Weekend to follow in the footsteps of the transformative nursing leaders who have come before them.
Hartman, who graduated in 2004 and is the college’s inaugural Young Alumni Award winner, was recognized for her role as a businesswoman and in establishing the Dementia Dialogues as a training program for Utah caregivers of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
“This project exemplifies the power of nurse leadership,” Hartman said. “Nursing is my edge. We are poised to lead and we should lead. You never know what one person can accomplish.”
Kaufman, who received her master’s degree from the college in 1987 and was a longtime clinical instructor and historian, highlighted leaders who have transformed patient care, including:
- -Iconic public health care nurses who traveled throughout rural America.
- -Founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale.
- -Utah State Senator and physician Martha Hughes Cannon.
- -Planned Parenthood founder and birth control advocate Margaret Sanger.
- -Colorado public health nurse Loretta Ford, who advocated for the establishment of the nurse practitioner profession.
- -Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, the former president and first lady whose Carter Foundation has combatted the stigma of mental illness and the spread of Guinea worm and river blindness in Africa.
- -Former Utah State Senator and nurse Paula Julander, who pushed her colleagues to pass the Nurse Licensure Compact and the Nurse Practice Act.
Kaufman, who advocates for nurses and health care reform on Utah’s Capitol Hill as a member of the Utah Nurses Association, said she is inspired by the ability of individual people—nurses, in particular—to shape policy.
“I am passionate about the role of the individual citizen in advocacy anywhere in this country,” she said. “Persistence is for the outside world. Patience is for yourself. Any kind of change takes time. Not only does it take time, it definitely takes coalitions.”
Alumni Weekend 2017 wrapped up with the first induction of the Half-Century Society, graduates of the college from 1947 to 1967, and the “Lucky Sevens” (1977, 1987, 1997, 2007) reunion.