Danish Ambassador to Honor Nursing Pioneer Charlotte Munck

Ambassador Jarl Frijs-Madsen, Consul General of Denmark, will visit Columbia University Medical Center in May to honor a founder of Denmark’s modern health care system and Columbia University School of Nursing graduate Charlotte Munck.

Widely regarded as the Florence Nightingale of Denmark, Ms. Munck, who graduated from Columbia Nursing in 1909, established Denmark’s first systematic nurse training program at Bispebjerg Hospital in 1913, which laid the groundwork for 1956 legislation that secured state regulation for nurse education.

Susan Rydahl-Hansen, head of nursing research at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital, also will be at the ceremony and will accept the Distinguished Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement in Ms. Munck’s memory. Columbia Nursing Dean Bobbie Berkowitz, PhD, RN, FAAN, will make introductory remarks.

The ceremony will take place May 2, 2014, at 11:30 a.m. in CUMC’s Bard Hall, 50 Haven Ave. Columbia University’s School of Nursing, established in 1892, was the first in the country to award a master’s degree in a clinical nursing specialty and the first to award a clinical doctorate, the DNP. It has the nation’s oldest continuous program in nurse midwifery, and its faculty was the first to gain full admitting privileges to a major teaching hospital. Among the clinical practice areas shaped by the school’s research are the reduction of infectious disease and the use of health care informatics to improve health and health care.