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Dorothea Dix
Dix began an investigation into the conditions for insane asylums. She submitted a report to the Massachusetts legislature that detail her findings. this helped imrove insane asylums in Massachusetts and in 15 other states. She worked for 40 years to establish new state hospitals for the mentally ill. -
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
She was a hospital administrator for Union soldiers during the American Civil War. She built 300 hospitals and aided the wounded on 19 battlefields including the Battle of Shiloh and Sherman's March to the Sea. At Sherman's request, she rode at the head of the XV Corps in the Grand Review in Washington at the end of the war. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
Formed the National League of Nursing and was their first president. She was also on the original committee that created the American Journal of Nursing. She also founded American Society of Superitendents of Training School for Nurses. -
Clara Barton
She started the International Red Cross. During the same year, she organizes efforts in the Florida Yellow Fever Epidemic.
She nursed soldiers on the battlefield after the Battle of Bull Run.
She also formed the first branch of the American Red Cross, serving as the first President -
Linda Richards
1st professionally trained American nurse. She created the 1st system for keeping medical records for hospitalized patients. She established the first nurse training program in Japan. -
Lillian Wald
She devoted her life to caring for the sick on the lower east side of New York. She was a founding memeber of the NAACP. She never married as she was devoted to caring for those in need, even living in the area where most of her patients lived. -
Mary Adelaide Nutting
She was in the first class of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses. Nutting later became Principal of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She was the first nurse to become a professor at a college. -
Lavinia Dock
She bagan a tenure at Henry Street Settlement, improving access to health care for impoverished inhabitants. Wrote the first nursing textbook, "Materia Medica for Nurses." She was a devoted suffragette and political activist. -
Mary Eliza Mahoney
She was the first professional black nurse. She graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses in 1879. She was one of only three persons in her class to complete the rigorous 16 month program. Today, the Mary Mahoney Award is given in recognition of significant contributions to interracial relationships. -
Margaret Sanger
She was the founder of the American Birth Control League. Produced "The Woman Rebel", a newsletter promoting contraception. She was indicted for producing "obscene materials." In 1916 she published "What Every Girl Should Know." -
Annie Goodrich
She served as President of the American Nurses Association. She was also the President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing. She became dean of the first nursing program at Yale University. -
Mary Breckinridge
She established the Frontier Nursing Service. The FNS helped lower the maternal death rate. She started family care centers in the Appalachian mountains. She brought midwifery to the United States. -
Ida V. Moffet
Head nurse of the 2nd Branch of Baptist Hospital in Birmingham She was the first woman involved in achieving school accreditation, in forming university level degree programs for nursing and in starting junior college level degree programs for nurses. The Baptist Hospital was renamed for her. -
Lillian Holland Harvey
Harvey was the Dean of Tuskegee University School of Nursing. Tuskegee University was the first college to form a bachelor of Science degree in the field of Nursing. They renamed the Nursing Home after her. -
Martha Rogers
Rogers was the Head of the Division of Nursing at New York University. She has written 3 books. Authored the landmark book, "An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing." -
Dorothea Orem
Orem founded the Self Care deficit Nursing Theory. This theory states that nurses have to supply care when the patients cannot provide care to themselves. -
Madeleine Leininger
She developed the concept of transcultural nusring, bringing the role of cultural factors in nursing practice into the discussion of how to best attend to those in need of nursing care. Her theories are based on what it means to care. -
Virginia Henderson
Her most notable achievement was a 19-year research project in which she gathered, reviewed, catalogued, classified and cross-referenced every known piece of research on nursing published in English, resulting in the five-volume "Nursing Research: Survey and Assessment.
She also received nursings highest honor, the Christiane Reimann prize. She was also the first full-time nursing instructor in Virginia. -
Jean Watson
Created the Center for Human Caring at Denver University. In 1979 she published "The Philosophy and Science of Caring." Her research is based on human caring and loss for which she has received numerous, worldwide awards and honoray doctorates.
