Our Condolences - Peggy McMahon

ENA mourns the loss of 1987 ENA President Margaret “Peggy” McMahon, a leader in her profession and in the association.

McMahon joined the Army Student Nurse program in 1965 while attending nursing school, and she served for a year in Vietnam as an emergency and trauma nurse. She continued to serve in the U.S. Army Reserves, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. She was instrumental in fundraising for the creation of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial.

Early in her career—which included roles as a clinical educator, ED clinical director, and lecturer—she traveled to hospitals in Alaska, Washington, Idaho and Montana educating nurses to help improve rural emergency care. McMahon also championed providing care with dignity to people who were homeless.

McMahon was involved in both the New Jersey and Washington state ENA councils, and she was co-editor of the Journal of Emergency Nursing before retiring in 2019. She was the 1995 Judith C. Kelleher Award recipient, an ENA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and a 2006 inductee into the Academy of Emergency Nursing.

ENA extends its sympathy to her family and friends.