Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America's first professionally trained Black nurse.

IV 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 42 Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America’s first professionally trained Black nurse. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 11, 2023 Ms. BUSH (for herself, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mrs. MCCLEL- LAN, Ms. BROWN, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, and Mr. SOTO) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America’s first professionally trained Black nurse. Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was born May 7, 1845, in Dor- chester, Massachusetts, to Charles Mahoney and Mary Jane Seward Mahoney-freed, formerly enslaved persons who had moved to Boston from North Carolina; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney, at the age of 33, was accepted as a student nurse at the hospital-based program of nurs- ing at the New England Hospital for Women and Chil- dren; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was 1 of 4 students, of a class of 42, who completed nursing at the New England Hos- pital for Women and Children in 1879; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:06 May 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC42.IH HC42 LPerry on DSKBC1BHB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HCON 42 IH Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney devoted her time and efforts unselfishly to the National Association of Colored Grad- uate Nurses and was installed as the Official Chaplin; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney’s motto was, ‘‘Work more and better the coming year than the previous year.’’; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney delivered the first annual key- note speech of the National Association of Colored Grad- uate Nurses and established the Mary Eliza Award, which today continues as the Mary Eliza Mahoney Award bestowed biennially by the American Nurses Association; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney supported the suffrage move- ment and was the first Black professionally trained nurse to receive retirement benefits from a fund left by a Bos- ton physician to care for 60 nurses, who received 25 dol- lars every 3 months as long as they lived; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney served as the director of the Howard Orphanage Asylum for Black children in Kings Park, Long Island, in New York City from 1911 until 1912; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney died on January 4, 1926, at the age of 80, after 3 years of battling breast cancer; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney’s gravesite is in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett, Massachusetts, and the headstone on her grave states, ‘‘The First Professional Negro Nurse in the U.S.A.’’; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was inducted into the Amer- ican Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976; Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney advanced the nursing profes- sion by fostering high standards of nursing practice and confronting issues affecting professional nurses, such as the shortage of nurses; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 May 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC42.IH HC42 LPerry on DSKBC1BHB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HCON 42 IH Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic worsened working condi- tions for nurses, and Forbes estimated in 2022 that 47 percent of health care workers left or are considering leaving the profession; Whereas, today only 6.3 percent of the registered nurse work- force identify as Black out of the 4,300,000 registered nurses in the country, despite research proving Black nurses are critical for providing Black communities better health care; and Whereas nursing is a critical investment to the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective patient care, and the Nation should invest in and value nursing care: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 1 concurring), That Congress— 2 (1) honors Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first Black 3 nurse, for an outstanding nursing career, dedication 4 to the United States nursing profession, and exem- 5 plary contributions to local and national professional 6 nursing organizations; 7 (2) recognizes Mary Eliza Mahoney as the first 8 professionally trained Black nurse, and honors other 9 Black nurses who practice nursing with distinction; 10 (3) honors and supports the goals and activities 11 of National Nurses Week; 12 (4) promotes further understanding and public 13 awareness of the history of American nurses, par- 14 ticularly Black nurses, who practiced nursing with 15 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 May 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HC42.IH HC42 LPerry on DSKBC1BHB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HCON 42 IH compassion and devotion and transmitted new sci- 1 entific knowledge using science-based nursing prac- 2 tice; and 3 (5) advocates for Black, Latina, and other 4 women of color to enter nursing and supports strate- 5 gies to retain and bring back nurses who are consid- 6 ering leaving or have left the nursing profession. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:05 May 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HC42.IH HC42 LPerry on DSKBC1BHB2PROD with BILLS