Guardian of the Discipline

The Nursing Research journal, In Memoriam of the journal’s former Editor from 1979-1997, stated:

Florence Downs – a well-recognized nursing leader, educator, editor, and scholar helped shape nursing as an intellectual discipline and wrote extensively about the importance of links between research and practice.

Florence Downs. (2005). Nursing Research (New York), 54(6), 373-. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-200511000-00001

Florence C. Downs, EdD, RN, FAAN (August 20, 1925-September 8, 2005)
Daughter of Charles H. and Marion R. Gregory Downs

Education

Diploma, St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing, New York, NY, 1947
Baccalaureate Degree, St. John’s University, 1956
Ed.D,, College of Education, New York University 1964

Experience

Public Health Nurse, New York, New York, 1947-1952
Instructor, New York University Division of Nursing, 1960-1964
Assistant Professor, New York University Division of Nursing, 1964-1968
Associate Professor and Director of the Post-Master’s Programs and Research, New York University Division of Nursing,1968-1972
Professor and Director of the Post-Master’s Programs and Research, New York University Division of Nursing,1972-1977
Professor, Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, 1977-1994.
Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, 1994
Visiting Professor at several national and international universities and Consultant for Graduate Curricula and Research, 1994-circa 2005.

Honors

Among the many honors that Dr. Downs received during her most distinguished career are:
National League for Nursing, Martha E. Rodgers Award for Scholarly Contributions to Nursing Science
Sigma Theta Tau, Elizabeth M. Miller National Award for Excellence in Research
American Academy of Nursing, Living Legend

Accomplishments

“Florence Downs shaped nurses’ intellectual foundations through her writings and through her involvement in nursing education and research for more than 30 years. She influenced the profession’s discourse on the importance of research and doctoral education for nurses, and the integration of research with clinical practice” (Fairman & Mahon, 2001, p. 322).

During her time at New York University, Dr. Downs facilitated the first computer-based course taken by nursing students. She also obtained federal funding for the Nurse Scientist Program, which supported nurses’ doctoral studies in our discipline. During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Downs first established the first nursing doctoral program in an Ivy League university and subsequently obtained federal funding under the Doctoral Program Emphasis Grant program, which facilitated exponential faculty research.

Dr. Downs published several books and at least 80 articles, including at least 27 editorials during her tenure as Editor of Nursing Research.

Reflections

I had the honor of meeting Florence S. Downs for the first time when I was enrolled in the nursing research course during my master’s degree studies at New York University Division of Nursing (NYU DoN) from 1968 to 1970. I had always been interested in research, which quickly became my passion when I heard Florence talk about what nurses could contribute to the evolving knowledge of nursing [now nursology] by conducting research.

I again met Florence when I was enrolled in the PhD nursing program at NYU DoN from 1972 to 1976. Florence was the director of the PhD program and was my teacher for the two-course sequence in dissertation proposal development . She also supervised an independent study during which I conducted what we now would regard as tiny pilot studies as I worked through what my dissertation topic would be. I was determined to select a topic that would be consistent with Martha Rogers’ conceptual system, which led me to consider changes in women’s preferences for color during pregnancy. At some time during the independent study, I began to think about perceived body image changes of women and their male spouses during pregnancy and the postpartum. Florence’s response to the latter topic was to ask me to abandon the “color stuff,” which I did. Shortly thereafter, Florence agreed to chair my dissertation committee. My dissertation topic became “ The relationship between spouses’ strength of identification and their patterns of change in perceived body space and articulation of body concept during and after pregnancy,” which I completed in the spring of 1976 (Fawcett, 1977a, 1977b). My dissertation was guided by a conceptual framework for the family that was what I regarded as an adaptation of Rogers’ conceptual system for the individual to the family (Fawcett, 1975). This was in the early days of what has become known as Rogerian Science or the Science of Unitary Human Beings, so that the conceptual framework and my dissertation research are not completely consistent with our current understanding of what constitutes Rogerian science (Fawcett, 2018/2023).

I was amazed and greatly honored when Florence recruited me to the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn) in 1978, just two years after I had completed my PhD studies at NYU. Florence had been recruited to Penn for the position of Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies by Dr. Claire Fagin, who had become the third dean of the School of Nursing in 1977. Although joining the faculty at Penn required commuting from my home in Connecticut, I could not resist the offer to be at Penn, especially to be part of the implementation of a first-ever nursing doctoral program in an Ivy League university. The university approved granting the Doctor of Nursing Science degree initially and after the faculty became increasingly funded research productive, approved granting of the PhD degree. Being part of this evolution with Florence so early in my post-doctoral career was a fantastic experience! Of note is that I was only one of several faculty who commuted to Penn from our homes in other states, including Florence.

A very early highpoint of my 21 years at Penn was being selected in 1979 by Florence to be one of two Associate Editors of Nursing Research (the other Associate Editor was Dr. Barbara Lowery), soon after Florence became the first academia-based Editor of the journal; she continued as Editor of Nursing Research until 1997.

Another highpoint of my time at Penn was co-authorship with Florence for two editions of The Relationship of Theory and Research (Fawcett & Downs, 1986, 1992) . I recall Florence telling me to remember that I must write keeping in mind that I would not be in the classroom with students (I was teaching our doctoral program course about the relationship of theory and research) so that the book content had to be comprehensive yet understandable!

Florence once wrote this as one of nine objectives for doctoral studies at New York University: “Able to sprout great white wings, they may soar heavenward to the great library in the sky” (Fairman & Mahon, 2001, p. 327). Many students at New York University and at Penn and other universities have done their very best to be doctorly-prepared nurses who did just that even before soaring heavenward! Noteworthy is that Florence chaired more than 100 doctoral dissertation committees and mentored many faculty (including myself) as we became chairpersons of doctoral dissertation committees.

References

Portions of this blog are based on content from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Barbara Bates Center for the Study of History of Nursing Florence S. Downs papers. Accessed March 8, 2024. https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/UPENN_BATES_PU-N.MC130

Fairman, J., & Mahon, M. M. (2001) Oral history of Oral history of Florence Downs: The early years. Nursing Research,50(5), 322–328. doi: 10.1097/00006199-200109000-00011

Fawcett, J. (1975). The family as a living open system: An emerging conceptual framework for nursing. International Nursing Review, 22(4), 113 116.

Fawcett, J. (1977a). The relationship between spouses’ strength of identification and their patterns of change in perceived body space and articulation of body concept during and after pregnancy. (Doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1976). Dissertation Abstracts International, 37, 4396B. (University Microfilms No. 77 5301) https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal1/dissertations-theses/relationship-between-spouses-strength/docview/302820204/sem-2?accountid=28932

Fawcett, J. (1977b). The relationship between identification and patterns of change in spouses’ body images during and after pregnancy. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 14(4), 199 213. https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-7489(77)90021-9 Reprinted in L. N. Sherwen & C. Toussie Weingarten (1983), Analysis and application of nursing research: Parent neonate studies (pp. 70 86). Monterey, CA: Wadsworth.

Fawcett, J. (2018, September 1; 2023, December 27). Rogers’ science of unitary human beings. nurology.net. https://nursology.net/nurse-theories/rogers-science-of-unitary-human-beings/ Accessed March 8, 2024.

Fawcett, J., & Downs, F. S. (1986). The relationship of theory and research. Appleton Century Cro¬fts.
Fawcett, J., & Downs, F. S. (1992). The relationship of theory and research (2nd ed). F.A. Davis Company.