![]() ![]() ![]() For the next 30 years, she worked mainly as a private duty nurse in the homes of wealthy white families. Out of a class of 40 entrants, Mary Eliza Mahoney graduated as one of only four students to complete the intensive program and became the first black professionally qualified nurse. The hospital was founded and staffed entirely by women physicians, and it’s possible that this other minority group – women in medicine – gave Mahoney the opportunity because they were also victims of prejudice. New England Hospital for Women and Children was the first institution in the US to introduce a formal nurse training course in 1872. At the age of 33, Mahoney was the first black woman to be accepted into the Hospital’s 16-month training program in 1878. Mahoney started work at the New England Hospital for Women and Children at age 18 and worked there for 15 years as a cook, maid, and washerwoman before starting her training as a nurse. ![]() She was a deeply religious woman, which was also the reason why she aspired from a young age to become a nurse. Mahoney’s small stature – weighing in at around 90 pounds – did not limit her energy and drive. Mary Eliza Mahoney was born on May 7, 1845, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to freed slave parents who had moved north wanting to live in an environment with less racial discrimination. Besides being acknowledged as an excellent nurse, she continued throughout her life making her mark as an activist for the rights of minority nurses and women. Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first professionally qualified black nurse in 1879. ![]()
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