NPIAP Honors the Legacy of Dr. Barbara Braden

NPIAP is saddened to share the news that Dr. Barbara Braden died last week. The National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel was honored to have Dr. Braden serve as a member of the Board of Directors. She is the 2019 recipient of the NPIAP JoAnn Maklebust Lifetime Achievement Award. 

We knew her, of course, for her groundbreaking work in the development of a risk assessment tool to determine pressure sore risk. Its success was immediate and indisputable. A unique aspect of the tool is that all six areas of risk were areas that nurses could independently address. The tool does far more than evaluate risk! It provides a practical template for the risk-based prevention strategies needed to prevent pressure sores (injuries) in millions of at-risk patients. Dr. Braden’s pioneering tool – now known the world over as the Braden Scale – has become a key driver of quality care in hospitals and long-term care settings around the world. Validation of the Braden Scale was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). Dr. Braden’s seminal research, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Nancy Bergstrom, has served as a critical foundation for decades of subsequent pressure injury research.

Dr. Braden did much more for nurses and others in need. She was a Professor of Nursing at Creighton University and Dean of the Creighton University Graduate School. She developed and directed the Robert Wood Johnson Teaching-Nursing Home Project that nurtured a love for elder care in countless nursing students. She was an advocate for many groups served by Creighton University and the city of Omaha including the Nebraska AIDS Project and Nebraska Appleseed. She was passionately engaged with many national organizations. She had an enormous heart and wonderful, sharp sense of humor, along with an uncanny ability to tell a great story. NPIAP is thankful for her wisdom and wit, passion and perseverance, dignity and grace, and the immeasurable impact she has had on professional colleagues and the patients we serve. Barb, the gift of your life has enriched us all. Thank you!