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Aydelotte, Myrtle K. (Myrtle Kitchell)

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1917 - 2010

Biography

Myrtle Elizabeth Kitchell, nursing leader and innovator, was born in Van Meter, Iowa, on May 31, 1917. Graduating high school at the age of sixteen, she took a year off and then entered a five-year baccalaureate nursing program at the University of Minnesota. She received her B.A. in nursing education in 1939.

After obtaining her degree, Kitchell worked as Head Nurse at the Charles T. Miller Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1939 to 1941. From 1941 to 1942 Kitchell was a surgical teaching supervisor at St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kitchell entered the Army Nurse Corps as an assistant chief nurse, a captain, at the 26th General Hospital in North Africa from 1942 to 1945, and, in 1945, she was chief nurse at the 52nd Station Hospital in Italy. After the war, Kitchell returned to the University of Minnesota to work on a master's degree in education and to serve as an instructor at the School of Nursing. She received her degree in 1948.

From 1949 to 1957, Kitchell was the Director and Dean of the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa) College of Nursing. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Educational Psychology in 1955 from the University of Minnesota. In 1956, Myrtle Kitchell married William O. Aydelotte, then the Chairman of the History Department at the State University of Iowa. They had two children, Marie in 1957, and Jeanette in 1959.

Aydelotte was a professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing from 1957 to 1962; from 1963 to 1964, she was the associate chief nurse and chief nurse of nursing research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa. Aydelotte resumed her professorship at the University of Iowa College of Nursing from 1964 to 1976; from 1968 to 1976 she was the director of nursing for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She retired from the University of Iowa in 1976.

After 1976, Aydelotte held positions in the American Nurses Association and the Center for Nursing Innovations. She also held visiting professorships at the University of Illinois College of Nursing and at Yale University. Aydelotte wrote and published prolifically. She is considered a national authority on societal change and its effect on health care delivery.

Aydelotte has been a member of the National League for Nursing; the American Nurses Association; Sigma Theta Tau, the international honorary for nursing; as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She has also been involved with the Iowa Citizens' League for Nursing, the Iowa Hospital Association, and the Iowa Nurses Association.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Myrtle Kitchell Aydelotte papers

 Collection
Identifier: IWA0036
Abstract

Professor of nursing,1957-1976, dean of the College of Nursing, 1949-1957, and director of nursing for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics,1968-1976.



Arrangement

The 2004 accession is shelved in boxes 47-50.The total number of boxes in the collection is 52.

Dates: 1934-2001