Margaretta Styles

Margaretta Madden Styles, EdD, RN, FAAN (b. 1930, Mount Union, Pennsylvania - d. Nov. 20, 2005, Clearwater, Florida), was an American nurse, author, educator and nursing school dean, who conceived and helped establish national standards for certifying nurses in pediatrics, cardiology and other medical specialties. Dr. Styles was the president of the American Nurses Association from 1986 to 1988, and wrote five books and many articles published in medical journals.

Education

Styles graduated from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania with degrees in biology and chemistry, and earned her master's degree in nursing at Yale University, and her doctorate in education from the University of Florida.

Career

In 1967, Styles became an associate professor of nursing at Duke University, and later served as dean of nursing at the University of Texas at San Antonio; then at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan, and from 1977 through 1987 at the University of California, San Francisco.

During the 1970s, Styles played a significant role in efforts to develop stricter certification of nurses and a compliance system to regulate nurses. Styles wrote extensively on advanced nursing practices for nursing journals, advocating strict criteria for issuing nursing credentials.

In the 1980s, Styles was instrumental in the founding of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), which is now a major unit of the American Nurses Association; the ANCC administers testing for more than twenty medical specialties, helping to standardize professional expectations of nurses. Styles was elected president of the International Council of Nurses in 1983, after turning her attention to the importance of trained nurses in developing countries.

Recognition

Styles continues to be quoted widely in medical publications. The Margaretta Styles Grant, presented by the Institute for Credentialing Innovation, encourages research on the impact of credentialing processes on nurses and the profession, as well as the accumulation of evidenced-based data to support quality patient care. The UCSF School of Nursing presents the Margaretta Styles Distinguished Nurse Award. Styles was inducted into the American Nurses Association hall of fame, was the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Council of Nurses' Christiane Reimann Award, regarded as nursing's most prestigious international honor, and was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Institute of Medicine.

Family

Styles was married for 47 years to the Reverend Douglas Styles, an Episcopalian priest who died in 2002. The couple raised two sons and a daughter, and had two grandchildren. Their son, Mike Styles, was the founder and race director of the Midnight Sun Run in Fairbanks, Alaska.

External links

• NYTimes - 'M. M. Styles, 75, Who Helped to Define Nursing Standards, Dies', Jeremy Pearce, New York Times (December 18, 2005)'
• SFGate.com - 'Margretta Styles -- UCSF nursing dean', Dave Murphy, San Francisco Chronicle (December 9, 2005)

Persondata
Name	Styles, Margaretta
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Date of birth	1930
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Date of death	2005
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