Act of gratitude to the Egea Zerolo family in honor of Chair Maria Egea

The University of Navarra and especially the School of Nursing celebrated yesterday a ceremony in recognition of the Egea Zerolo family for their generous contribution to the Chair María Egea, dedicated to the research and training in Nursing. The event took place in the Hall of Degrees of Office of the Executive Council, and was attended by academic authorities, grant recipients and the Egea Zerolo family.

The Chair María Egea was created in 2007 in honor of María Egea Zerolo, who dedicated her professional life to nursing and bravely faced her fight against osteosarcoma. Her experience as a patient in the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and her love for the profession inspired her family to promote this Chair, which seeks to promote the study and research in nursing.

During the ceremony, the dean of the School of Nursing, Ana Choperena, highlighted the importance of the Chair as a tool to continue the project of the School at research and the development of professionals committed to excellence and service. He explained: "it is the best way we have to thank the example of life that Maria was for Nursing. A person who was a nurse by vocation and who, being a patient, continued with that vocation of service, acceptance, joy and constant struggle".

Jesús Martín, one of the beneficiaries of the grants from Chair and current professor at School of Nursing, shared his experience of having received a financial aid from mobility that allowed him to carry out a postdoctoral stay in Boston. "Thanks to your support, initiatives as important as the one I meeting developed are today a reality. Your commitment to training and research in nursing is making a tangible difference, and today I am a living testimony of that. Thanks to the support of the Egea family, I have been able to carry out a highly relevant project for the translation and cultural adaptation of a chronic heart failure experience scale into English. This project will have an international impact, improving patient care not only in Spain, but also in other contexts," commented Martín.

Beatriz Paloma, nurse at Clínica Universidad de Navarra, and nurse of María Egea during her admission to the Clinic also attended the ceremony and dedicated a few words of thanks to María's parents: "I was lucky enough to have been María's nurse when she was admitted to the CUN. I remember perfectly well that she came to work at night and I was also pregnant. I see the picture, she was in bed, semi-incorporeal, and her mother was with her, who had a worried look on her face. She was in room 211. At that time, I think it was one of the first admissions. I was shocked, as you are shocked by many patients throughout your career, but Maria especially because she was an enthusiastic nurse and at the top of her game. One of those situations that make you wonder about the mystery of suffering. And it's like that, as an anonymous says: when you are a nurse you know that every day you can change a life or a life will change yours."

In addition, thanks to funding from the Chair a project was carried out at CUN to empower the hospitalized chronic heart failure patient through the training of nurses in coaching skills.

María Iraburu, president of the University of Navarra, thanked the Egea Zerolo family for their commitment to the University: "with their contribution, we are building a future in which research and training quality nursing are fundamental pillars of our university". He highlighted the comprehensive approach of the School of Nursing that combines maximum professionalism with maximum humanity and reflects the essence of project educational of the University, always seeking to attend not only to the physical needs, but also to the emotional and spiritual well-being of each person."

The ceremony ended with the words of Ricardo Luis Egea, María Egea's father, who thanked the University for making and maintaining María's spirit and the greatness of her profession through the research, the future vision of the University and the Clinic, the vision of the whole person and the spirit of submission and constant improvement.

María Egea Chair

The Chair María Egea has made it possible to finance numerous research projects and training stays in prestigious European centers, as well as scholarships for students wishing to specialize in the field of nursing. In the 2023/24 academic year, two grants of 4,000 euros have been awarded for the Master's Degree in internship Advanced Nursing in Oncology and grants of research for projects such as the validation of instruments for assessment of patient perception or the implementation of prevention programs in university students.

Who was María Egea?

María Egea Zerolo was born in Madrid on January 20, 1981. She studied at the high school of the Sacred Heart and later at the high school of Jesuits in Madrid. In the last years of high school she discovered her vocation as a nurse based on the desire to be close to the person who suffers. She studied nursing at the School of San Juan de Dios of the Pontifical University of Comillas. After finishing the diploma program, and after working in the hematology department of the Hospital de la Paz in Madrid, she moved to the Clinique des Cédres in Toulouse (France). In November 2003 she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and her family decided to transfer her to Clínica Universidad de Navarra for treatment. This was the beginning of the stage in which she experienced the other side of her profession as a nurse: being a patient. 

A year after her death, in 2007 (17 years ago), Chair María Egea was born. The experience that Maria had at the University Clinic along with her joy, her way of facing and accepting pain, her relationship with the nurses; and above all, her passion for Nursing motivated her family to leave Maria's mark through this Chair.