Celebrating Loretta Ford's Upcoming 100th Birthday! NP Pulse (podcast)

An internationally renowned nursing leader, Dr. Ford transformed the profession of nursing and made health care more accessible to the general public. After graduating with an MSN degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder, she continued her studies as she practiced as a public health nurse, earning her doctorate in nursing education from CU in 1961. It was as a professor at the University of Colorado, College of Nursing, that she partnered with Dr. Henry K. Silver, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Medical Center, to create and implement the first pediatric NP model and training program. She deflects all attempts to give her credit for the existence of the more than 290,000 NPs licensed in the country today. The credit belongs, she says, to those first NPs who showed the world what nurses could do, courageous pioneers and idealists, gifted and knowledgeable. And to any critics of the role, she says: "I've found the only way you can deal with critics who are not going to change is to outlive them." Dr. Ford turns 100 years young on Dec. 28, 2020.