Sara Hutchinson Hampshire, the first nurse practitioner to work with the Occupational and Student Health Center at Vanderbilt University, has died in Nashville after suffering from cancer. She was 71 years old.
Hutchinson held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Vanderbilt University. After graduating from Vanderbilt School of Nursing, she worked at Rush Presbyterian in Chicago before returning to Vanderbilt on an innovative Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project promoting the role of nurse practitioners in primary care.
For more than 30 years, Hampshire was a trailblazer in women’s health and advanced practice nursing, making a significant difference in the lives of thousands of women in Middle Tennessee. She received the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Clinical Achievement in Nursing Award in 2009.