Genrose J. Alfano, MPH, RN, 80, educator, editor, and advocate of the elderly, died May 18 at Nassau Community Hospital in Oceanside, New York. The cause was pneumonia and lymphoma. Alfano succeeded founder Lydia Hall as the director of the Loeb Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, an innovative nurse-run facility founded in 1962 that prioritized nursing care. In 1986 Alfano became editor of Geriatric Nursing, the American Journal of Care for the Aging. Hers was a strong voice promoting equal access to health care for the elderly, and she bristled at the thought of their being dismissed because of age. (A sign on her office door noted, "Age only matters if you're a cheese.")
Says Florence Huey, Alfano's successor at Geriatric Nursing: "She was a champion of nurse-led care of elders during the days when many nursing homes were embroiled in scandal because of too few RNs to direct and deliver care."-Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, news director