Florence Guinness Blake (November 30, 1907 - September 12, 1983) was an American nurse, professor and writer who made significant contributions to pediatric nursing and to family-centered nursing care. Blake wrote her classic text, ''The Child, His Parents and the Nurse'', in 1954. She co-authored two other pediatric nursing textbooks, ''Essentials of Pediatric Nursing'' and ''Nursing Care of Children''. She was on the nursing faculty at several American universities. She was posthumously honored with induction into the

American Nurses Association The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a 501(c)(6) professional organization to advance and protect the profession of nursing. It started in 1896 as the Nurses Associated Alumnae and was renamed the American Nurses Association in 1911. It is ba ...

Hall of Fame.

Biography

Florence Blake was born on November 30, 1907. She was the daughter of musician Thelma Dunlap Blake and minister James Blake. She graduated from the Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing in 1928. She completed an undergraduate degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1936. After teaching pediatric nursing in China for several years, she earned a master's degree from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1941. Beginning in the 1940s, Blake headed the graduate program in advanced pediatric nursing at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. Blake's 1954 book, ''The Child, His Parents and the Nurse'', highlighted the importance of parent-child relationships and parental involvement in the medical care of children. In a review published in the ''Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine'', Morris Green wrote that the book represented the first textbook that attempted to provide comprehensive nursing knowledge on child care. Green wrote that "the emphasis is not limited to technical procedures and disease processes (disease-oriented care) but broadened to include a better understanding of the needs of children and parents (patient-oriented care) in health as well as disease." Blake led the advanced pediatric nursing graduate program at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

between 1963 and her retirement in 1970. She died on September 12, 1983. Blake was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Florence 1907 births 1983 deaths People from Stevens Point, Wisconsin American women nurses Teachers College, Columbia University alumni University of Michigan alumni University of Chicago faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Nursing educators 20th-century American women 20th-century American people American women academics American expatriates in China

Biography

See also

References