MARY ELIZA MAHONEY FAMILY PROFESSIONAL

Families that employed Mahoney praised her calm and quiet efficiency. “After graduation,” according to a PBS “American Experience” profile, “Mahoney registered for work as a private duty nurse. There were also the lectures and tutelage from the doctors, and then an additional four month internship as a private duty nurse. To be certified required year-long training and work in the hospital’s medical, surgical and maternity wards. She was among the 42 students who entered that year and was one of the four who graduated the following year.

MARY ELIZA MAHONEY FAMILY PROFESSIONAL

In 1878, at 33, she was accepted as a student in the first professional nursing school in the country. At 18, she was employed at the progressive New England Hospital for Women and Children, where she worked as a cook and a domestic servant. She attended Phillips School, one of the few integrated schools in Boston, and was a teenager when she began pursuing her dream to become a nurse.

The Civil War was over by the time Mary Eliza Mahoney was accepted into nursing school, but the gallant Union fighters, particularly those wounded in battle, could have used Mahoney’s skilled professionalism and calm efficiency and caregiving that were the hallmarks of her illustrious career.īorn May 7, 1845, in Boston, Mass., Mahoney was a descendant of free Blacks from North Carolina and the oldest of three children. Black Financial Health Open dropdown menu.

Mary eliza mahoney family