Professor Marjorie (Marge) Funk was honored at her retirement party at the Yale Golf Course in early June, with many colleagues paying tribute to her 34 years at YSN.
Marge has been on the faculty of the Yale School of Nursing since 1984. She received a BA in religion from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, a BSN from Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing, a MSN in medical-surgical nursing with a clinical specialty in cardiovascular nursing from the Yale School of Nursing, and a PhD in chronic disease epidemiology from Yale University.
Her teaching responsibilities included statistics, research, electrocardiography, and clinical supervision in cardiac critical care.
The focus of Marge’s research was the wise use of technology in the care of critically ill patients with heart disease. She examined the appropriate and safe use of technology, its equitable distribution, and the human-machine interface. In 2008, Marge received a $3.9 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for The Practical Use of the Latest Standards for Electrocardiography (PULSE) Trial – a 6-year, 17-site randomized clinical trial evaluating the effect of implementing American Heart Association practice standards for ECG monitoring on nurses’ knowledge, quality of care, and patient outcomes. Most recently, her research has addressed clinical alarms.
Her research has provided an opportunity for her to mentor both students and hospital nurses. She served as co-chair of the Nursing Research Committee at Yale-New Haven Hospital and helped hospital nurses through all phases of the research process, including presenting and publishing.
Marge has been very active in the American Heart Association, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, Eastern Nursing Research Society, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, and Healthcare Technology Foundation.
We are so grateful for the many ways Marge has contributed to the Yale School of Nursing, and to the nursing profession as a whole. We wish her every happiness in her retirement!