08/01/2014
Nephrology Clinical Solutions was deeply saddened this week when one of our founders and principal, Sally Burrows-Hudson, passed away on July 28, 2014 after a brief hospitalization. Jennifer Vavrinchik, Alex Yang, and Glenda Payne as well as the other employees of NCS treasure their memories of working with Sally, and deeply mourn her loss. We expect to carry on her work by continuing to serve the mission of NCS, “To improve the impact of nephrology therapies and patient care through education, training and clinical solutions.”
The following is excerpted from a tribute compiled with the input of many of Sally’s colleagues and friends. Nephrology News and Issues published the complete tribute, “Nephrology Loses a Giant,” July 31, 2014.
Sally had a long career in nephrology, beginning as a dialysis technician in the early 1970’s, educating herself to the graduate level, earning an MSN from the University of California at San Francisco, all the while working as a nephrology nurse and advancing to President of the American Nephrology Nursing Association (ANNA) in 1990.
Sally was a pioneer in defining nephrology nursing practice and certification for nurses and technicians. She was an early member and on the Board of AANNT, the organization that preceded ANNA. She was a board member and item writer for BONENT for at least a decade prior to the establishment of the Nephrology Nursing Certification Commission. Sally and her husband, Martin V. Hudson, were life-long advocates for technician role definition, better education, certification, professionalism, and recognition. Sally recognized and valued the unique nature of nursing, and never failed to encourage technicians and nurse assistants with, “When are you going to nursing school? You are going, right?” Her email address of “TriumphantRN” rang true.
Many will remember her work with Amgen, including playing an instrumental role in the Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative (DOQI) and the Kidney Disease Quality Outcomes Initiative (KDOQI) projects with the National Kidney Foundation. Others will remember the work she did early in her career with the ESRD Networks, where she was a Quality Improvement Director for Network 17, and the seminal publications with Doug Vlchek on quality assurance for dialysis in the 1990s. Sally was a fierce supporter of life-long learning and evidence based practice, was the editor of the 6th Edition of ANNA’s Nephrology Nursing Standards of Practice and Guidelines for Care, and she most recently served as a member of a 2011-13 ANNA task force evaluating nurse-sensitive outcomes for development of a potential quality measure.
Sally earned both of the most prestigious nephrology nursing awards: the Outstanding Contribution to ANNA (1996) and the Annual Dialysis Conference Lifetime Achievement Award in Nephrology Nursing (2011) from the Division of Nephrology and Continuing Education, University of Missouri. She had over 60 publications, almost 20 abstracts, and numerous presentations, many on quality improvement topics. She was founder and President of the Institute for Clinical Excellence, Education and Research (ICEER), a non-profit corporation to conduct and support research in nephrology.
Sally should be remembered for her strengths: she was a passionate patient advocate who cared deeply about nurses moving toward higher level, quality-focused practice. On the day before her death, she commented that the day-nurse was questioning a technique the night-nurse had successfully used to make her more comfortable. Sally texted a friend, “I’m going to ask him for his evidence.” We should all adopt that as our mantra in her memory.
