Dr Ildaura Murillo-mission Rohde’s goal was to provide a means for Latino and Hispanic nurses to further their education to serve their community better and improve their lives.
In 1975, she was the primary mover and shaker behind the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) establishment. Throughout his career, Rohde has been an advocate for more Hispanic and Latino nurse representation at all levels of the nursing profession.
Murillo-Rohde made his way to the United States in 1945 after being born in Panama. When she started as a nurse in San Antonio, Texas, she saw that only a few other nurses could comprehend their primarily Hispanic patients’ language and cultural needs.
She went on to receive a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a doctorate in psychiatric mental health nursing from Columbia University and New York University, respectively, after being inspired by the observation.
In the 1970s, when Murillo-Rohde was assessing grant applications for education and research, she relived the same process she had done many years before. Again, she saw that there were not enough Hispanic nurses working in academic settings or public policy, and she became an advocate for societal shifts and more diversity.
In the American Academy of Nursing, Murillo-Rohde held the position of fellow. She was a member of the nursing faculty, a professor, and eventually the dean of the nursing programme at SUNY in Brooklyn, New York. She is now the dean and a professor emeritus at SUNY’s School of Nursing.
Murillo-Rohde passed away on September 5th, 2010, in Panama.
NAHN members who have made remarkable achievements in nursing education, research, and practice are being honoured today with the Dr Ildaura Murillo-Rohde Award for Education Excellence by a Hispanic R.N. The award is named after Dr Ildaura Murillo-Rohde.