Maite Díaz Navarlaz. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Maite Díaz Navarlaz, a nurse at the Clinic and professor at the University of Navarra School of Nursing, has died at the age of 55.

Born in San Sebastian (Guipuzcoa), Maite Diaz Navarlaz studied Nursing at the University of Navarra, where she later taught. She holds a Master's degree in Nursing and Education from the University of Edinburgh and Master's Degree in Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University (USA). It was at the latter center where she completed a research stay to analyze methods for improving quality and safety of care in hospitals.

Since 1978 she has worked at the Clínica Universidad de Navarrawhere she has been an instructor and supervisor. She was currently working in the Preventive Medicine Unit.

An expert in process and quality care activity, she joined the School of Nursing as professor in 1988. position There she held the position of director of programs of study from 1994 to 1999, as well as administrative assistant of department of Community and Maternal-Child Nursing from 2003 to 2006.

In 2009 Maite Díaz Navarlaz joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva (Switzerland), to lead a project on safety in Intensive Care Units in Spanish hospitals. At the same time, she was conducting a research on medication administration in Nursing, the errors produced in this area and their prevention.

As the director of the School of Nursing, Mercedes Pérez Díez del Corral, recalls, "Professor Díaz Navarlaz was a person very much loved by her students and colleagues, both at the School and at the Clinic, where she has left a huge void. Her human quality and her great preparation and professional prestige have made her a point of reference for nursing professionals".