In Memoriam to ANA past president Styles
Margretta Madden Styles, RN, EdD, FAAN, died Nov. 20 after a lengthy illness. “Gretta” as she was known, was the only nurse to be president of ANA, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
Born in Mount Union, PA, Styles earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Juniata College in Pennsylvania in 1950 at the age of 20. She then spent a year working at an Episcopal convent in Puerto Rico, where she taught basic science courses in a diploma nursing school. The experience there working with nurses inspired her to pursue a Master’s in Nursing degree at Yale University, which she completed in 1954. In 1968 she received a doctorate in education from the University of Florida.
It was in fact the field of education where Styles began to make an indelible mark on the field of nursing. She served as associate professor at the School of Nursing at Duke University and as professor and dean at the schools of nursing at the University of Texas, Wayne State University and the University of California, San Francisco. In her role as an academic leader, Styles established doctorate programs in nursing and a center for health care policy, and she became an advocate for women’s rights and for the nursing profession.
As the architect of the first comprehensive study of nursing credentialing in the 1970s, Styles was an innovator and pioneer in framing and defining this critical work that recognizes and differentiates quality in all aspects of nursing practice. In the 1980s, she spearheaded ICN’s definitive work on nursing regulation, and she served as its president from 1993 to 1997. ICN awarded her its Christianne Reimann Prize in 2005.
Styles served as president of ANA from 1986 to 1988, a time when the issue of entry into practice was entering heated debate and threatening to cause a split within the association. She also helped to establish the Commission on Organizational Assessment and Renewal, which proposed to admit organizational affiliates into ANA’s membership structure.
This move paved the way for the creation of ANA’s subsidiary for credentialing services, ANCC, and Styles served as president of this body from 1996 to 1998.
A driving force behind the creation of the ANCC, her work laid the groundwork for expanding the services and programs in the United States and abroad.
She was inducted into the ANA Hall of Fame in 2000 and awarded the Nightingale Lamp Award in 2004 and the Distinguished Scholar Award in 1984 by the American Nurses Foundation. ANCC established the annual Gretta Styles Scholarship for Credentialing Research in her honor, and the American Academy of Nursing named her a Living Legend. She was also honored by the National Academy of Sciences, Yale University, and Sigma Theta Tau, the national nursing honor society.
Styles was a sought-after speaker, convenor and author and beloved by many nurses she had taught and mentored and at the nursing organizations where she had held leadership positions. She attributed much of her success to being the youngest child in a large family. “I felt I had to fight harder to be heard and seen,” she said.
Donations in honor of Styles are gratefully accepted by:
Margretta Madden Styles International Student Scholarship Fund
School of Nursing UCSF
Foundation
44 Montgomery Street, Suite 2200
San Francisco, CA 94104-4709
Payable to: UCSF Foundation
Margretta Madden Styles
Credentialing Research Endowment
American Nurses Foundation
8515 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Hospice of Florida Suncoast
2675 Tampa Road
Palm Harbor, FL 34684
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