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Dorothea Dix
In 1841, after becoming witness to extreme inhumane treatment of mental patients in a Boston jail, Dorothea embarked on a life-long journey to improve living conditions of the mentally ill. She traveled thousands of miles and worked ambitiously to convince authorities to develop more suitable climates for mental patients, and was successful in doing so. -
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Bickerdyke began as a deliverer of medical supplies for union soldiers' camps during the civil war. However, when she would arrive at the camps she felt obligated to stay and help treat soldiers and attend to cleaning duties. -
Linda Richards
Linda Richards is recognized as being America's first trained nurse. Linda was the first student to enroll and graduate from Susan Dimock's nursing program in New England. Her diploma is in the archives of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. -
Mary Eliza Mahoney
Eliza Mahoney is known for being the first African-American registered nurse in the United States. -
Clara Barton
This Civil War philanthropist is most recognized for the creation of The Red Cross in 1881. She is very credited for the caring and hospitalizing of troops during the Civil War. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
In 1883 Robb moved to Rome with some classmates to serve as nurses at St. Paul's House. After returning to the US, she went on to teach nursing and is credited for developing the first grading system for nurses. -
Lavinia Dock
Lavinia Dock trained as a nurse at Bellevue Hospital in New York between 1884-1886. She is credited for compiling the first manual of drugs for nurses, titled "Materia Medica for Nurses". She was also very involved in the women's rights movement, especially the right to vote. -
Lillian Wald
Lillian Wald was a German-Jewish born nurse who devoted her life to caring for the residents of lower east-side New York. With the help of Mary Brewster, Lillian moved into a spartan room near her patients to care for them more conveniently. Today, Lillian is credited for being the founder of Visiting Nursing in the US and Canada. -
Mary Adelaide Nutting
This Canadian born nurse is best known for her influence in the proper training of nurses. She recognized that nurses were being used for cheap labor in hospitals and secured approval for a three-year curriculum. She also began a professional nurses library at John Hopkins University. -
Margaret Sanger
In 1921, Margaret founded the American Birth Control League in New York City, supporting "planned parenting". Sanger is widely credited as being a leader in the modern birth control movement. In 1923 she created the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, and served as its president until its dissolution in 1937, after birth control was legalized. -
Virginia Henderson
Virginia Henderson graduated from the Army School of Nursing in
Washington, D.C. She is best known for her definition of nursing, which is, "the unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strengh, will or knowledge. -
Annie Goodrich
Annie was the dean and creator of the first nursing program at Yale University. She went on to develop the Yale Graduate School of Nursing ten years later. -
Mary Breckinridge
Mary was an American nurse-midwife and founder of the Frontier Nursing Service. She started family care centers in the Appalachians mountains and was known for helping many people with her hospitals -
Ida Vines Moffett
Ida Moffett led a very fulfilling life in the field of nursing in the southern United States. In 1943 she organized Alabama's first Cadet Nurse Corps and in 1948 helped establish a nursing program at the University of Alabama. She continued to assist in the advancement of nursing education throughout her life. -
Lillian Holland Harvey
Lillian was the Dean of Tuskegee University School of Nursing for almost 30 years. Because of her efforts, Tuskegee would become the first college in Alabama to offer a bachelors degree in nursing. -
Hildegard Peplau
Hildegard is universally known and regarded to as "the mother of psychiatric nursing." In 1948 she completed her book "Interpersonal Relations in Nursing" but it wasn't published until 1952 because of co-author issues. Since the book's publication, interpersonal relations have been included in nursing programs in the US and abroad. -
Martha Rogers
Marth Rogers was an American nurse, theorist, researcher and author. Rogers is best known for developing the Science of Unitary Human Beings and her landmark book "An Introduction to the Theoretical Basics of Nursing. -
Dorothea Orem
Between 1959 and 2007 Dorothea Orem developed the Orem Model of Nursing. In simplest terms, this theory states that nurses have to supply care when the patients cannot provide care to themselves. It is particularly used in rehabilitation settings, where the patient is encouraged to be as independent as possible. -
Madeleine Leininger
A trip to New Guinea opened Madeleine's eyes to the need for nurses to understand their patients. Madeleine is recognized worldwide as the founder of transcultural nursing, a program she created at the University of Washington in '74. -
Jean Watson
Jean Watson is the founder of the Center for Human Caring in Colorado. She holds an endowed chair in Caring Science at the University of Colorado; in 1979 she organized her beliefs into her own "Caring Theory."
