Maxine Ellen Loomis, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Professor of Nursing

B.S.N., University of Michigan, 1965; M.S., University of Michigan, 1967; Ph.D., 1971, University of Michigan. Loomis’s doctoral dissertation, in education, was called, “Group-Contingent Reinforcements of Chronic Psychiatric Patients” (University of Michigan, 1971).

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, 10th Floor of University Hospital, summer 1965; Float Nurse, 1965-1967; Clinical Nurse Specialist, Neuro-Psychiatric Institute, 1967-1971 (on leave 1970-1971); Director of Psychiatric Nursing (Neuro-Psychiatric Institute and Children’s Psychiatric Hospital), 1971-1973, University of Michigan Hospital.

Instructor in Nursing (Neuropsychiatric Nursing) 1967-1969, Assistant Professor of Nursing 1969-1972, Associate Professor of Nursing and Area Chair of Psychiatric Nursing 1972-1973, Professor of Nursing and Area Chair of Psychiatric Nursing 1973-1975, Professor of Nursing, Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Nursing, and Acting Dean, 1975-1976, School of Nursing, University of Michigan; Professor of Nursing 1976-1981 (sabbatical 1980-1981).

At the University of Michigan Loomis showed promise as an administrator while still a student. In 1963, as a junior, she was elected vice-president of Assembly House Council (AHC), the student governing body of University women. One of the first issues addressed by Loomis and Charlene Hager, AHC president, was the meal service at dormitories. They argued for reducing or eliminating the number of sit-down dinners at women’s dormitories in favor of the cafeteria line. Couzens Hall and two dormitories had already made this change, but other women’s dorms served family-style dinners every day. “There are several reasons for desiring a change in policy,” Loomis said. “Because of classes, women can’t afford the extra time involved in served dinners.” The following year, when Loomis was AHC president, Loomis lobbied for the merger of Assembly House Council and Inter-Quadrangle Council, the men’s group, anticipating the transition to coeducational housing. When Bursley Hall opened in 1966, the majority of University housing would be coeducational.

Loomis and her colleague D. Jean Wood contributed the chapter on curriculum design in their co-edited volume The Loomis-Wood Model: Applying Theory to Nursing Education, Research, and Practice, published by the National League for Nursing in 1992. After leaving Ann Arbor Loomis was on faculty at University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of South Carolina. She contributed significantly to the development of each of their doctoral programs in nursing. Loomis was director of the nursing doctoral program at the University of South Carolina until her retirement in 1989. She died in 1997 at Columbia, South Carolina.