Wilson Society member spotlight: Jane Tuttle, PhD, ’79N, ’84N (MS)

The University of Rochester School of Nursing will always be a place Jane Tuttle calls home.

Jane Tuttle, PhD, ’79N, ’84N (MS)

In choosing a career, Jane Tuttle, PhD, ’79N, ’84N (MS) thought about how she loves people and she loves science, so nursing was the perfect fit. That’s been reinforced again and again, and she believes the University of Rochester School of Nursing has shaped her career enormously.

Considering herself a lifelong learner, Tuttle has appreciated that a nursing education can be completed in stages and can be adapted to a distinctive path like hers. Throughout her career, she found the flexibility and support she needed at Rochester and has used that foundation to become an advocate for other nurse practitioners as they join the field.

She arrived at the school already a practicing nurse, and as an adult learner was able to complete a tailored program that maximized learning right from the beginning. After she completed her BS in 1979, she moved to Washington, DC to take a position working with Georgetown University’s community health plan, and her UR education was noted by the person who hired her as a major factor. Then, after moving back and completing her master’s as a family nurse practitioner at Rochester, she went on to take a faculty position at the Yale School of Nursing. Once again, her UR education set her apart. During her eight years in New Haven, she completed her PhD at the University of Connecticut and then returned to Rochester, this time to take a faculty position in the family nurse practitioner program, which she later directed for more than 20 years.

Tuttle shares, “What is unique about Rochester is the mentoring, the reputation, the way we work in an interdisciplinary way across the University and Medical Center. That’s not true everywhere. I enjoy the balance I’ve had with patient care, research, writing, and of course teaching. I feel very fortunate to have had a long career in teaching.”

There was already a separate division of adolescent health at the University of Rochester, and that was a huge draw for Tuttle who studied pediatrics and chose to focus her work on adolescents when her own son was becoming a teenager. “Those years are such an important time for families, when the child is going through separation and individuation, and I consider adolescents to be underserved in health care,” she explains.

Tuttle has directed her giving toward scholarships because she has a special place in her heart for students. “As a faculty member, students are what it’s all about,” she says. “That’s why we do what we do. They need the support, especially those who don’t have family to fall back on. When I started out, I was a young single mom and didn’t have a lot of resources.” Now, Tuttle and her husband value being members of the Wilson Society, staying connected with alumni, and contributing to the future of the school.

Tuttle says, “I knew I wanted to recognize the University of Rochester in my will in memory of my dear friend Eleanor Hall who was instrumental in founding the School of Nursing here. When she died, I became a member of the bequest society in her honor.” The society, formerly named the Eleanor Hall Bequest Society, has been incorporated into the University’s Wilson Society; however, Hall, chair of the Department of Nursing of the School of Medicine and Dentistry from 1957 to 1971, is still remembered profoundly. Tuttle often walks by the portrait of Hall at the school and feels she can hear her mentor’s voice, guiding her in her practice.

When she thinks about why other alumni should join her as a donor, Tuttle says, “we all benefited from the resources, and now we can help others take advantage of that. The University of Rochester is always on the cutting edge. I am so proud of how highly regarded we are.”

“I feel lucky that I found nursing and that the University of Rochester has been a real home to me over all these years,” Tuttle reflects.