Benoliel honored

Dr. Jeanne Quint Benoliel, UW professor emeritus of nursing who has been a leader in humanizing care for dying patients, will be honored as a “Living Legend” at the American Academy of Nursing’s annual meeting in San Diego next month. This prestigious honor recognizes fellows of the Academy who have defined the profession of nursing in some fundamental way and have made lifelong contributions of great distinction.

Jeanne Benoliel at a reunion for the School of Nursing Ph.D. program this summer

Based on her doctoral research, Benoliel founded a graduate program in “Oncology Transition Services” at the UW School of Nursing that became the foundation for advanced practice nursing care in hospice settings and home care for the dying in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. She emphasized the role of the family in caring for their loved one and was instrumental in reshaping attitudes toward the terminally ill. Benoliel was the first nurse president of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement and continues her work in her retirement.

She joined the School of Nursing faculty in 1970 after earning national recognition for her research on bereavement following the death of a spouse from lung cancer and the importance of breast self-examination to identify early breast cancer.

She has published extensively on death and dying for the past 40 years and has lectured at conferences across the nation for nurses, hospital chaplains, physicians and psychologists.

She was a professor and department chair at the UW before being named the School of Nursing’s first Elizabeth Sterling Sould Professor of Nursing and Health Promotion in 1987. She became professor emeritus in 1989.

To celebrate the Academy designation, Benoliel will be feted by School of Nursing faculty and alumni and Dean Nancy Fugate Woods at a special reception in San Diego in conjunction with the Academy conference.

Dr. Rheba deTornyay, dean emeritus of nursing, was honored as a Living Legend in 1995.