Lambertsen, Eleanor C., 1916-1998.

Eleanor Lambertsen (1916-1998) was a leader in American nursing education. She trained at the Overlook Hospital School of Nursing in Summit, NJ, and completed her education (BS and EdD) at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her dissertation, "Education for Nursing Leaders," completed in 1957, introduced the model of team nursing, a model that is still influential in nursing practice today. In 1958, she became the first Director of the Division of Nursing of the American Hospital Association. She remained in this position until 1961, whereupon she returned to Teachers College as the director of the nursing education division.

From 1963 to 1969, she was President of the American Nurses Foundation. In 1970 she moved on to the post of Dean of the School of Nursing at Cornell University-New York Hospital. Her scholarly work created the basis for the revised legal definition of nursing in the landmark revision of the New York State Nurse Practice Act in 1972; she served as consultant for the New York State Nurses Association Special Committee to Study the Nurse Practice Act from 1969 to 1972. In the 1970s and 1980s, she served on various boards and committees, such as that of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the World Health Organization's expert advisory council on nursing. She continued teaching well into the 1980s.

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