Luther Parmalee Christman was an American nurse, professor of nursing, university administrator and advocate for gender and racial diversity in nursing. His career included service with the Michigan Department of Mental Health and academic posts at the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University and Rush University. In 1967, Christman became the first man to hold the position of dean at a nursing school. While serving as vice president for nursing affairs at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Christman implemented the Rush Model of Nursing, an influential model for delivering hospital nursing services. He was involved in the founding of the National Male Nurse Association, which later became the American Assembly for Men in Nursing. After his 1987 retirement, Christman received several awards and honors for his contributions to nursing. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2011.
Education
Christman earned a diploma from the Pennsylvania HospitalSchool of Nursing for Men in 1939. He received an undergraduate degree from Temple University in 1948, then an Ed.M. degree in clinical psychology from the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. He completed a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, where he studied anthropology and sociology. Christman overcame gender discrimination during his own education; he was refused admission to two university nursing programs because he was male. While a nursing student, he was denied a maternity clinical rotation for the same reason.
Career
Christman said that he faced hostility from female coworkers early in his career, and that night shift positions in psychiatric nursing and urology were virtually the only openings for men. Christman was denied admission to the U.S. Army Nurse Corps on the basis of his gender; instead, he served in the U.S. Maritime Service as a pharmacist's mate during World War II. After returning from the war, Christman worked as a private duty nurse and assistant head nurse at Pennsylvania Hospital. After completing his Ed.M., he became director of nursing at Yankton State Hospital in South Dakota. In 1956, Christman went to work for the Michigan Department of Mental Health. In that position, he coordinated nursing school training at hospitals in the state. Christman was named associate professor of psychiatric nursing at the University of Michigan in 1963. In 1967, he assumed a dual role as nursing school dean at Vanderbilt University and director of nursing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 1972, he took on similar responsibilities at Rush University and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. While Christman was at Rush, the school and hospital implemented the Rush Model of Nursing. The model highlighted the importance of clinical expertise among faculty members, which was similar to the established practice in medicine. His faculty practice model required that nursing professors spend most of their time in clinical practice. He retired in 1987. During his career, Christman advocated for the advancement of nursing education. In the late 1960s, Christman predicted increased specialization in the next generation of nurses; he advocated for nurses to be freed of non-clinical tasks so that they could keep up with the nursing demands in an increasingly technological environment. In a 1978 presentation in Australia, he argued against systems which utilized a combination of registered nurses, nurse aides and student nurses; he highlighted statistics which showed that nurse aides were unoccupied up to 25 percent of the typical work day. Christman served multiple terms as president of the Michigan Nurses Association and he proposed the idea that led to the founding of the American Academy of Nursing.
Even after his retirement, Christman remained an active participant in nursing affairs for many years. He died of pneumonia on June 7, 2011 in Nashville. He was predeceased by his wife, Dorothy Black, in 2003. They had married in 1939 and had three children.
Legacy
In 1975, the American Assembly for Men in Nursing established the Luther Christman Award. The award recognizes "the contributions to nursing made by men, funds scholarships for men in nursing, and research for men’s health and issues specific to men in nursing." In 2007, the American Nurses Association introduced a separate Luther Christman Award which "recognizes the significant contribution an individual man has made to the nursing profession."
