Professor Charo Serrano, former director of the University School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, current School of Nursing, general supervisor and first supervisor of research of the University of Navarra, died today. Clínica Universidad de Navarra. Charo was also the first nurse to direct the School and she combined the development of her professional activity with the work professor, assistance and research at the University.     

Charo Serrano, a native of Valencia, joined the University of Navarra in 1966, where she served as professor of Nursing Ethics, director of programs of study, deputy director and director (1993-1996) of the then University School of Nursing. The current dean of the School, Mercedes Pérez Díez del Corral, recalls that, thanks to her strategic vision and magnanimous disposition, she promoted the academic development of academic staff facilitating the programs of study of Master's Degree and doctorate in the United Kingdom when in Spain this possibility did not exist.

Maribel Saracíbar, professor emeritus of School of Nursing, colleague and friend, assures that she was a visionary woman: "Charo was ahead of the nursing of her time and knew how to foresee the future. She never ceased in her struggle for the progress of nursing as a discipline".

Before retiring, she sowed the seeds of what today forms part of the tripod (attendance, teaching, research ) of nursing at the Clinic, being the first supervisor of research. In the 1980s, when nursing research in Spain was still very incipient and scarce, explains Saracíbar, Serrano, together with a team of nurses and teachers, developed a line of research that obtained competitive funding for more than a decade. This work, which was published in journals of impact in the healthcare field, not only contributed to the professional development of clinical nursing but also led to the academicdiscussion of professors at the University on the philosophical and methodological approach of the nursing curriculum.

Professor Serrano was one of the first Spanish nurses to do a Master's Degree abroad; she studied MSc Nursing at the University of Edinburgh. This fact, together with her research work, led to an extensive relationship with different leaders in national and international nursing.

During her period as director of the University School of Nursing, she directed a Strategic Plan that led to its subsequent departmental development and the incorporation and training of nurses to degree program professor and research. "She was a great mentor, concerned about encouraging and training the following, the new incorporations of young professors, helping them in their professional degree program while setting them ambitious challenges."

Professor Saracíbar emphasizes that, until the end of her life, she was open and interested in listening to all the progress and innovations in nursing. She also emphasizes her human side and her enthusiastic and vital personality. He remembers her as an elegant, cultured and fun woman who deeply loved her work and the University of Navarra.