[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 386 Referred in Senate (RFS)]


109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 386


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 20, 2006

Received and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America's first professionally trained 
                        African-American nurse.

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was born May 7, 1845, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 
        to Charles Mahoney and Mary Jane Seward Mahoney;
Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney, at the age of 33, was accepted as a student nurse at 
        the hospital-based program of nursing at the New England Hospital for 
        Women and Children;
Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was one of four students, of a class of 40, who 
        completed nursing at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 
        1879;
Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney devoted her time and efforts unselfishly to the 
        National Association of Colored Graduate 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 Graduate 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 movement and was the first 
        African-American professionally trained nurse to receive retirement 
        benefits from a fund left by a Boston physician to care for 60 nurses, 
        who received twenty-five dollars every three months as long as they 
        lived;
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 American Nurses Association 
        Hall of Fame in 1976;
Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney advanced the nursing profession by fostering high 
        standards of nursing practice and confronting issues affecting 
        professional nurses, such as the shortage of nurses;
Whereas today the shortage of nurses is a crisis, estimated to be 110,000 
        nurses, and is expected to increase to 2,800,000 by 2020 if this trend 
        continues; 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 concurring), 
That the Congress--
            (1) honors Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first African-American 
        nurse for an outstanding nursing career, dedication to the 
        United States nursing profession, and exemplary contributions 
        to local and national professional nursing organizations;
            (2) recognizes Mary Eliza Mahoney as the first 
        professionally trained African-American nurse, and honors other 
        African-American nurses who practice nursing with distinction;
            (3) honors and supports the goals and activities of 
        National Nurses Week;
            (4) promotes further understanding and public awareness of 
        the history of American nurses, who practiced nursing with 
        compassion and devotion and transmitted new scientific 
        knowledge using science-based nursing practice; and
            (5) advocates for women of color to enter nursing and 
        supports strategies to counteract the shortage of nurses.

            Passed the House of Representatives September 19, 2006.

            Attest:

                                                 KAREN L. HAAS,

                                                                 Clerk.