Registered Dietitian and certified Shapedown instructor, Heather Holden,
(center) teaches Will Hoffman (left) and Breana Stallworth (right) how to be more active. /Photo by Dana Johnson
Nursing school’s first endowed chair Ingeborg Mauksch dies
Ingeborg Mauksch, Ph.D., Vanderbilt School of Nursing’s first endowed chair, and the first endowed chair in nursing in the United States, died June 20 in Fort Collins, Colo. She was 82.
Ms. Mauksch spent more than 50 years of service in nursing. She was instrumental in developing the role of the Family Nurse Practitioner, promoting Hospice Care, emphasizing team work in health care design and bringing attention to the value of patient and family decision making in health care.
Ms. Mauksch was recruited to VUSN in the late 1970’s to become the first Valere Potter Distinguished Professor of Nursing.
“From the moment she arrived, Ingeborg became a force to be reckoned with, not only in the School of Nursing, but throughout the University as a whole and within the Nashville Jewish community,” said Ken Wallston, Ph.D., professor of Psychology in Nursing.
Wallston said Ms. Mauksch was a thinker and a clinical scholar.
“She loved facilitating the work of others, and spurring them on to do the best work they could. It was during the five years that she was here that the first serious planning for a Ph.D. program in nursing was done, largely through her urging,” added Wallston.
Ms. Mauksch extended her work to act as a mentor to staff nurses in the Medical Center, starting a journal club and encouraging them to be involved in nursing research.
Upon her retirement, Vanderbilt honored Ms. Mauksch with the establishment of an award created in her name to recognize excellence in mentoring. Ms. Mauksch herself was the first recipient of the award.
She received dozens of other awards including being inducted into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Ms. Mauksch is survived by her two children and five grandchildren.