Charlotte Munck

Laura Charlotte Munck (1876–1932) was a pioneering Danish nurse who is remembered for her influential role in The Danish Nurses' Organization, a trade union, and for her contributions to nurses training in Denmark, especially the training programme she established at Bispebjerg Hospital in 1913.

Early life The youngest daughter of Frederik Vilhelm Munck, a parish priest, and his wife Marie Ludomilie Charlotte Fabricius, Munck was born in Lille Næstved just west of Næstved on 6 July 1876. She was raised with her six siblings in a comfortable Christian home, in which her father was not only the pastor at Herlufsholm School but was socially active, especially in the field of health insurance. In 1894, she travelled to Lausanne, Switzerland, where she studied languages at the École des jeunes filles.

Recognition In 1932 Charlotte Munck was awarded the Medal of Merit (Denmark) in Gold by king Christian X of Denmark.

At a ceremony in May 2014 at Columbia University's School of Nursing, where Charlotte Munck had studied in 1909, New York's Danish Consul General Jarl Frijs-Madsen honoured her with the Distinguished Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement: "Although it's been more than a century since Charlotte Munck studied right here at Columbia Nursing, her fundamental philosophy lives on in the Danish health care system today. We believe the best health care begins with the patient, and Munck's vision placed nurses at the forefront of creating a national system of patient-centred care."

Publications