Biographical Sketch

Gail Kuhn Weissman Ed.D.,  RN, FAAN (1939- ) led the nursing profession while it confronted one of the most diruptive forces in patient care history: managed health care.  A cymanic and highly-respecte4d nurse, nurse administrator, nurse educator, people person and much sought-after speaker, Dr. Weissman confronted the papdigm shifts in health care early and head on. H Her lectures, presentations, speeches and publications were meant to inspire her profession, of which she was fiercely proud, to take an active part in creating its. future.

Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1939, Gail Kuhn received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University in 1960, her MA in Nursing from teachers College, Columbia University in 1963, and her EdD from the Nurse Executive Doctoral Program at Teachers College 1988.^[1]   She also obtained a Certificate in Health Systems Management from Harvard University in 1979.

Although her papers do not indicate when she first started to work at Montefiore Hospital and Medical center in New York City, by February 1972 she was Director of Nursing.  There, she had direct administrative responsiblity for the Department of Nursing, Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Room, In-service Education, Nursing Task Force, Operating Room, Recovery Room, Physician Associates, Renal Dialysis and Transplant and Special Programs.

By the end of 1972, she had moved to the Mount Sinai Medical Center, also in New York City.  By 1981, she was Vice-Poresident of Nursing, as well as an assitant professor in the Department of Health Care Management, and Dean fo the School of Continuing Education for Nursing.  During her tenure at Mount Sinai, Dr. Weissman published extensively in professional journals on such nursing topics as revising discharge forms to improve continuity of care; nursing-doctor collaboration; patient-focused care; clinical career pathways’ nursing information technology; nursing ethics; nurse professionalis; building the nurisng image; and the experience of newly-hired RNs at large urban medical centers.  Management issues such as nurse stoppage contingency plans, high school mentoring programs, nurse recruitment curse satisfaction, nurse retention, and managing a multicultural/multiethnic workforce were also the subjects of her articles.  In her role as a nurse educator, she traveled to Chile in 1991 where she delivered a series of classes on nursing in the United States.

In January of 1994, after 22 years at Mount Sinai, Dr. Weissman made a major career change by moving to Bost and becoming Associate General Director, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nurs Executive at the Massa chusetts General Hospital.  Throughout her career, Dr. Weissman was a much sought-after lecturer and presenter, but in Boston, her output was especially prodigious.  She delivered countless presentations on important nursing issues of the day such as advanced practice nursing, univeral room design, patient care restructuring, the paradigm shifts in health care and the effects of managed care on teach hospitals.

In March of 1994, just months after starting her new position, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital merged to form the Partners HealthCare System in Boston.  As she continued at Partners, Dr. Weissman’s lectures, publications, and reports grew progressively more corporate in content.  She wrote two business plans, delivered a presentation on the corporate model to plastic surgery nurses and chaired several task forces and committees which produced substantive reports on patient care information systems, patient and family-focused care, hospital air quality, and latex allergies.

In March 1998 Dr. Weissman returned to New York City to become Executive Director of Nursing Services and the Enid A. Haupt Chair in Nursing at Memoiral Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New Yor,, New York, where she managed 900 nurses and directed patient care and clinical research.  Improving the quality of life for cancer patients by expounding such issues as cancer fatigue was one of her foremost concers.  Throughout her career, Dr. Weissman was a strong proponenet of professional development and nurse professionalism.  While at Sloan-Kettering she implemented the latter by elevating Sloan-Kettering’s nurses from hourly to salaried staus.

Her role as an educator occaisionally extended beyond the walls of the medical institution at which she was employed.  She taught a class titled “Management of Nursing Services” at the Graduate School of Management and Urban Professions at the New School of Scoial R4esearch in 1982 and at New York University’s Leadership Training Institute for Nurse Managers in 1992.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Weissman was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) in 1983, received the prestigious Jacobi Medallion for Distinguished Achievement and Extradordinary sErvice to the Hospita, Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1989, the Distinguisehd Service Alumni Award, Vanderbilty University in 1989, and the Nursing Education Aluni Association of Teachers College 1993 Nursing Service Award, among many others.

She was  amember of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the Nursing Education Alumni Association, Teachers College, Columbia University, the American Hospital Association, American Nurses Association, and the American Management Association.  Her professional activities included serving on the advisory and planning committees of the New York State Legislature’s Nurse of Distinction Conference and Award, and the planning committee of the Institute for Nursing Leaders Program at the Pace University Lienhard School of Nursing.  She was also a revier for Nursing Leadership Forum.

Words from a speech she once wrote in honor of a fellow nursing leader, may perhaps describe Gail Kuhn Weissman as well: “She was always seeing the possiblities, exploring the outer boundaries, and finding a way despite numerous challenges.  She was able to see the bigger picture, but never lost sight of the small details, and most importantly, the people within the organization.”

Her hobbies were skiing, tennis, scuba diving and motor cycling.^[2]   

Scope and Contents Notes

This collection documents the professional activities and achievements of Gail Kuhn Weissman, EdD, RN, FAAN and captures a tulmultuous period in nursing history.

Throughout her career, Dr. Weissman deliviered countless lectures and persentations, first while at Mount Sinai, and then even more prolifically while she was Associate General Director, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nurse Executive at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts (1994-1998).  The texts, 35 mm. color slides and overhead transparencies of her lectures and presentations are in the collection and carry such titles as “The Employer Perspective: Recruiting Licensing and Orienting Foreign Nurses” (1991), “Health Care Regulation” (1992), “Influencing Physican Behavior to Enhance Clinical Quality & Efficiency” (1993), “Effects of Managed Care on Teaching Hospitals” (ca. 1994), “Advanced Practice Nursing in the Partners HealthCare System” (1995), and “Culturally Competent Patient/Family-Focused Care” (1996). After she returned to New York City as Executive Director for Nursing Services and the Enia A. Haupt Chair in Nursing at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (1998-200), her focus turned to cancer treatment reflected in titles such as “Center Fatigue Initiative Roundtable” (1998) and “Improving Quality of Life in Cancer Patients Through Effective Symptom Management” (1999).  Dr. Weissman’s teaching also reached an interantional audience. She traveled to Chile in 1991 where she delivered a series fo lectures on nursing in the United States, to Russia and Romania in the fall of 1996 as Leader of the Nurse Executives Delegation of the Citizen Ambassador Program, and in 1999, where at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, she mot certainly broadened the perspectives of a class of nursing students visiting from Italy with a presentation on “Nursing in the United States.”

In addition to delivering lectures and rpesentaiton, Dr. Weissman published extensively in professional publications, especially while she was at Mount Sinai Medical Center.  “Building the Nursing Image,” “The Staff Development Program of the Mount Sinai Hospital, New Yor,’ and “Physician-Nurse Collegiality in the Medical School Curriculum” are some represntative titles.  Also of note are the substantive committee and task force reports she produced while at Massachusetts General/Partners HealthCare such as “Non-acute Care Network development Advisory Committee for Partners HealthCare System, Inc.” (1995) and a business plan from 1997 titled “Concierge By Request” that addressed a “growing need of today’s independent seniors living in apratment buildings.”

Arrangement & Series Descriptions

This collection comprises five series: Series 1. Presentations, Lectures, and Speeches, 1982-1999; Series 2: Professional Articles, Publications and Reports, 1970s-1998; Series 3: Awards and Accolades, 1989-1999; Series 4: Professional Organizations and Activities; 1987-1999; Series 5: Books (The books were relocated to the Research Library, Center for Nursing at the Foundation of New York State Nurses.

Each series is arranged chronologically with the exception of Series 5 (Books) which is arranged alphabetically by author.  Series 1 and Series 2 are further divided into three subseries by the name of each medical institution at which Dr. Weissman spent her career.

Series 1: Presentations. Lectures, and Speeches, 1982-1999

The texts of Dr. Weissman’s numerous presentations, lectures and the 35 mm. color slides and overhead color transparencies she selected to accompany them while she was at Mount Sinai Medical center (e.g., “Managing Change in Complex Organizations”), Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System (e.g., “Health Care Reform: The Callenge for Nursing”), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (e.g., “Cancer Fatigue”). Series also includes eight small, plastic slide boxes containing 35 mm. slides that went along with some of Dr. Weissman’s presentations, lectures, and speeches.

Series 2: Professional Articles, Publications and Reports, 1970s-1998

Individual articles from professional journals, (a chronological list of Dr. Weissman’s professional journal articles immediately follows below), including a few extant journals in which the articles were published, committee and taskforce reports, a business plan, and a marketing plan, that Dr. Weissman authored or co-authored first while she was at Mount Sinai Medical Center (e. g. “The Newly Hired Hospital Staff Nurse’s Professionalism, Satisfaction and Alienation”), then while she was at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System (e.g., “Massachusetts General HospitalStrategic Planning Taskforce on Patient and Family-Focused Care”), and finally when she was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (e.g., “Professional Nurses Compensation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center”).  Series also includes a folder of unpublished manuscripts and a folder of professional correspondence and documents spanning Dr. Weissman’s years at Mount Sinai,  Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Articles, press releases, congratulatory letters, newsletters, and invitations to receptions regarding Dr. Weissman’s awards, honors, and positon appointments, while she was at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Series 4: Professional Organizations and Activities, 1987-1999
 Correspondence, conference programs and class bulletins that document Dr. Weissman’s numerous professional memberships and extensive service on planning and advisory committees, such as an awards application she submitted on behalf of a nurse she supervised; correspondence whith journal editors she review articles for, and with authors for whose book she was interviewed. Also includes papers that document Dr. Weissman’s role as an educator outside the confines of the medical centers at which she was employed, such as the Graduate School of Management and Urban Professions at the New School for Social Research, the Institute for Nursing Leaders at the Lienhard school of Nursing at Pace University, and the Leadership Training Institute for Nurse Managers at New York University.
Series 5: Books

Primarily Who’s Who registers in whcih an entry describing Dr. Weissman is included.
 This series includes two different types of materials: Publications of the New York State Nurses Association from 2002-2003 and letters of thanks from the Association for Ann Lewis’ donations over the years. The collection also contains a framed certificate honoring her on her 90th birthday for her dedication to nursing.