Van Rensselaer (redirected from Euphenia)

Van Rensselaer, Euphenia

[van ren′səlir]

(1840-1912), an American socialite who entered the first class of the Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses in New York. She designed the first nurses' uniform, a blue and white seersucker dress with collar and cuffs, apron, and cap. She succeeded Sister Helen as superintendent of Bellevue and later joined the Sisters of Charity, for whom she established a mission in Nassau, New York. She organized the Seton Hospital for Tuberculosis in New York.