VAMSF Scholarship Announcement and Application
Vera P. Arterburn – by Stephen E. Ronai, Esquire
Vera P. Arterburn, one of the founders of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, Inc (CAHCF), and its predecessor organization, was a pioneer and a leader for over 40 years among geriatric health-care professionals. Her years of service to CAHCF were characterized by her dedication to nursing education which was of primary focus to her, as both an LPN and as a nursing home owner, in assisting the Association and its Members to promote and improve the delivery of quality patient care to its patients. Therefore, it seemed appropriate shortly after Vera’s death in 1987, for the Association to create the Vera Arterburn Memorial Scholarship Fund, Inc,, as a tax-exempt Section 501(c)(3) organization, and to use charitable donations made by CAHCF Members to award nursing educational scholarships to deserving applicants who qualify as employees of CAHCF Member institutions and who wish to advance their long-term-care provider education.
She was born in Czechoslovakia on August 1, 1909 and came originally to Edwardville, Illinois (near Cairo, Illinois) as a young woman. Typical of the devotion and zeal of the American immigrant, Vera’s personal and professional life was that of a patriotic, industrious, dedicated, and hard-working woman who began her career first as an LPN, and she then later evolved into a forthright and spirited leader in the nursing home industry. After coming to Connecticut in 1947, she established the Arterburn Convalescent Home in West Haven and continued as its owner and Administrator until her retirement in 1986. During that time frame, Vera was instrumental in the founding, and then serving as an officer of, several long-term care membership organizations that monitored the delivery of quality patient care by its institutional members. As a founding Director of the predecessor to our Association, The Connecticut Association of Extended Health Care Facilities, Inc. (as nursing homes were then called under the original 1965 Medicare/Medicaid regulations), she remained a CAHCF Director Emeritus until her death. She was also the first Member of the American College of Health Care Administrators (Membership Card #1). As a CAHCF Director, Vera regularly represented the Association and its Members in negotiations with State regulatory agencies (the Departments of Public Health and Income Maintenance (now DSS)) concerning Medicaid rate issues and quality patient care problems.
SEE our Events and Education Calendar page of the website for information on this years VAMSF Golf Outing.