Biographical Sketch

Cynthia R. Kinsella was born in 1923 in the Borough of the Bronx in New York as one of nine children. She was academically advanced for her age and graduated from high school at the age of 15. She knew she wanted to be a nurse, but was too young to qualify for nursing school yet so she studied for her Bachelor’s degree at Hunter College. There she majored in physiology and minored in chemistry to prepare her for nursing school.

In September 1941 she was admitted to the Bellevue School of Nursing, the very same year as Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor and the beginning of the United States involvement in World War II. Bellevue experienced an exodus of nurses to aid the Army and Navy Nurse Corp, so student nurses like Cynthia Kinsella found themselves having far more responsibility in patient care. She graduated from Bellevue in 1943, and received certification as a Registered Nurse. Her first position after graduation was as an Emergency Ward nurse at Bellevue Hospital. She took a two year medical leave and returned to Bellevue in 1946 as a new bride, assigned to be a clinical instructor on the surgical service. At the same time she had a number of professional assignments for the New York City Department of Hospitals including: Director of the Nurses Health Service, Consultant in Disaster Nursing, Supervisor of Admitting-Emergency Services, Assistant Director for Specialized Services, and the Director of Staff Education.^[1]

In 1954 she began her post-graduate work at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City studying for a Master’s degree in the Administration of Nursing Education. She was granted that degree in 1956 and then enrolled in the doctoral program. While working on her dissertation between 1961 and 1966 she was appointed to a number of positions within professional nursing organizations such as; ANA (American Nurses Association) Committee on Nursing and International Affairs, the Board of Directors of the New York Counties Registered Nurses Association, Chairman of the New York City Committee on Educational Television in Nursing, NYSNA Committee to Study Recognition for Clinical Nursing Competence, Board of Directors of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Administration (she was later vice-president), the ANA Commission on Nursing Services, and finally she was elected first Vice-President then later President of the New York Counties Registered Nurses Association.^[2] All the while she finished her doctoral thesis on The Needs of Community College Teachers of Nursing, and the Implications for Inservice Education and was granted her doctorate degree in 1967.

In 1966 she accepted the position as Director of Nursing and the Schools of Nursing at Bellevue Hospital Center. Two months after her appointment the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Health and Medicare came into New York City to study the care in the New York City Department of Hospitals, the Deputy Commissioner of Hospitals and Cynthia found themselves targeted and were called to testify about budget shortages and patient care. Also during her time as Director, enrollment in Bellevue was diminishing because of changes in educational requirements of nurses. To solve this problem she collaborated with Hunger College’s Nursing program and combined the school and hospital to create the new Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing.^[3]

In 1968 she was offered a position as the Director of Nursing at the Mount Sinai Hospital and of the School of Nursing at the Mount Sinai Hospital. It was here that she wrote the “Role of the Nurse Clinician” a booklet that helped improve medical and nursing patient plans of care. While at Mount Sinai she was offered the opportunity to develop a baccalaureate program in nursing in conjunction with the City College. Once the new program was formed, Cynthia Kinsella was appointed Dean of the School of Nursing as well as she maintained her position as Director of Nursing.

In 1970 she was appointed to various federal, state, and city assignments including appointment to the National Advisory Council on Nurse Training, to review applications for federal grants. She was then appointed by Governor Rockefeller to the NYS Health Resources Commission, at the same time Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed her to the NYC Comprehensive Health Planning Board. In the spring of 1972 she and her husband retired to Maine, but she remained on the National Advisory Council.^[4]

While living in Maine, she was appointed to the Maine State Nurses Association Commission on Nursing Services and she worked with the University Of Maine Bureau Of Labor Relations to set up workshops for Hospital Administrators to continue staff education at the Maine Medical Center in Portland as well as throughout the state.^[5] She developed a series of tele-lectures that she delivered via tele-conferencing as well as she held seminars. Also while living in Maine she was appointed to the Board of Trustees at the Mount Desert Island Hospital and to the Board of Mount Desert Family Counseling Services, where she would ultimately become the President of the Board.

In 1983 because of her husband’s deteriorating health they relocated to Southold, Long Island. In 1987 she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Eastern Long Island Hospital, two years later she was the chair.^[6] She was the first nurse to ever chair that Board. During her tenure in Long Island she was honored by the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital council with the Theodore Roosevelt Award for Exemplary Service. She retired from the board in 1992 and moved with her husband in 1996 to a retirement community in Vero Beach, Florida. Her husband, Jack Kinsella, passed away in 1999. Since his death Cynthia has continued to work within the community where they lived, in 2002 she even accepted a position as a member of the Board of Directors at the Florida State Life Care Association.

Scope and Contents Notes

This small collection contains some of the personal and professional papers and ephemera of Cynthia R. Kinsella spanning from her time as a student at Bellevue Nursing School to her donation of the collection, 1941-2003. It includes items such as diplomas, her dissertation, nursing certifications, yearbooks, and photographs from her days as a nursing student at Hunter College, Bellevue School of Nursing, and Columbia University Teachers College. It includes such professional papers as correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches, publications, lectures, notes, pamphlets, and photographs from her time as Nursing Director at Bellevue Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital, as well as her time working in Maine and Long Island.

The collection also includes publications and journal articles written by Dr. Kinsella over the course of her career. There are some personal items among the collection including a scrapbook she put together over the course of her life beginning at her time as a nursing student and continuing throughout the course of her career. A few artifacts include her Bellevue School of Nursing pin, an ANA pin and charm, and an American Red Cross Nurse pin.

Series Descriptions

Series 1: Education, 1941-1967
 This very small collection includes paper and bound materials. It contains her diplomas, nursing certifications, papers written while at school, her Bellevue yearbook, her dissertation, and a Bellevue Nursing School Alumnae Association book. The collection also includes her capping exercises and graduation exercises programs, photographs from nursing school reunions, and a directory of classmates from 1965.
Series 2: Employment, 1966-1976
 This series includes paper and published materials from her time working as Director at Bellevue Nursing School, and Mount Sinai, as well as her time in Maine. It includes such professional papers as correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches, publications, lectures, notes, pamphlets, and photographs. It includes her tele-lectures and the book that accompanied the class she taught. This series includes numerous copies of the Bellevue alumnae newsletter.
Series 3: Professional Organizations, 1946-1992
 This series is primarily made up of speeches, publications, journals, and correspondence from her associations with various professional organizations such as the ANA and the National Advisory Council. The majority of the collection is made up of journal articles and speeches she prepared for various conferences.
Series 4: Artifacts and Ephemera, 1941-2003
 This series is comprised of some personal items including a scrapbook she put together over the course of her life beginning at her time as a nursing student and continuing throughout the course of her career. As well as, few artifacts including her Bellevue School of Nursing pin, an ANA pin and charm, and an American Red Cross Nurse pin.

Footnotes

• [1]Cynthia R. Kinsella, Providing Nursing Leadership to the Nation: The Glorious History of the First One Hundred Years of the New York Counties Registered Nurses Association(NYCRNA) District 1,Susan L.A. Mayer, ed., (New York: Registered Nurses Association, 2004), 66.
• [2]Ibid, 67
• [3]Ibid, 70
• [4]Ibid, 72
• [5]Ibid, 73
• [6]Ibid, 74