School of Nursing honors nursing pioneer
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| CU School of Nursing Dean Patricia Moritz, PhD, FAAN, left; and Diversity Leadership Award recipient Zipporah Parks Hammond. |
The UCD School of Nursing’s annual Diversity Leadership Reception
honors nurses who have made significant contributions working with diverse
populations. One of the honorees was Zipporah Parks Hammand, who in 1946,
became the first black woman to graduate from the University of Colorado’s
nursing program.
When Zipporah Parks Hammond picked up the crayons and began drawing a picture
of a nurse, the fifth grader just knew that’s what she wanted to be
when she grew up. Little did she know that her decision to become a nurse
would make her a pioneer. With no role models to follow, she became the role
model, penetrating segregated environments to achieve her dream.
Hammond, 80, is “one of the school’s real pathfinders,” according
to Patricia Moritz, PhD, FAAN, school of nursing dean.
When Hammond was accepted to the nursing school in 1941, she was the only
black woman in a class of 30 students. She was barred from rooming with white
students, who became angry at the school for allowing Hammond to even study
with them. Over time, she made friends with her classmates and earned the
nickname “Zippy,” which she has kept ever since.
After graduation, Hammond worked as a surgical operating room nurse at Colorado
General Hospital. A year later she was recruited by the chief of orthopedics
at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as his chief surgical nurse. She worked
at John Andrews Hospital-Infantile Paralysis Unit, the institute’s
polio clinic.
While there, she contracted tuberculosis and was sent back to Denver to recuperate
at a sanitorium run by the National Jewish Hospital. There she met her future
husband, Sheldon, who was also a patient at the sanitorium.
Because of the scarring in her lungs, Hammond’s doctors discouraged
her from returning to nursing, so she again enrolled at CU where she earned
a Medical Records Librarian Certificate in 1948. She became assistant director
of the Medical Records Department at University Hospital and in 1953 became
medical records director at Presbyterian Hospital until resigning in 1956
to raise a family. In 1964 she went to work at University Hospital, retiring
in 1991.
Hammond’s influence extended beyond nursing. Her passion had an impact
on her family as well. One son is leading the way as one of the few minority
deputy directors in the United States Geological Survey while another son
is blazing trails of diversity in executive assignments in human resources.
The UCD School of Nursing salutes Hammond for her tenacity, passion and
vision.
The Diversity Leadership Reception, held in Humphrey’s Lounge at the
School of Nursing, on Dec. 3, 2004, was sponsored by the UCD School of
Nursing. Guest speakers were Margie Ball-Cook, PhD, ANP, president of the
Colorado Council of Black Nurses, and Cathy Benavides-Clayton, RN, MS, NP,
president of the Colorado Hispanic Nurses Association.
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