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Dorothea Dix
Dorthea Dix was an American activist who cared for the mentally ill and the poor conditions in which they were treated. After accumulating undecorable circumstances, she took her accounts to the Massachusetts Legislature and won many hospitals erected for the insane. -
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
During the Civil War "Mother" Bickerdyke, became a hospital administrator for Union soldiers and worked on the first hospital boat. While traveling with General Ulysses S. Grant, she set up hospitals were needed, by the end of the war; she hadset up 300 hospitals and helped out on 19 battlegrouds, including the Battle of Shiloh. -
Linda Richards
After graduating Linda Richards traveled to New York and worked at Bellvue Hospital were she started a system of records for individual patients. Later, she traveled around the world from England to Japan to set up nurse training programs. -
Clara Barton
Clara Barton established a branch which delivered medical supplies to wounded soldiers during the Civil War. She also implemented the American Red Cross in which she served as President until her death. -
Lavinia Dock
Lavinia Dock contributed to the literature in nursing. She wrote many nursing books which one called "Materia Medica for Nurses" was one of the first textbooks to be used by nursing students. For twenty years she also worked on the International Council of Nurses. -
Lillian Wald
Lillian Wald developed a home nursing program to help poor immigrants and their families in New York. It took several years, but, finally, her hard work paid off. Eventually, the New York Board of Health organized staffing for the public schools that she began. -
Mary Adelaide Nutting
Mary Nutting was one of the first students to graduate from and became the superintendent at the Johns Hopkins Hospital of Nursing; during her reign, she expanded the nursing curriculum and created the eight hour work day. Also, she was the first woman to hold a professorship at Columbia University. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
Isabel Robb became a superintendent at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, there she contributed and implemented standards of grading policies for nursing education. She founded the Nurses Associated Alumnae and became the first President. Afterwards, she organized a new school that was affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital were eventually she developed the standard nursing textbook in American schools. -
Mary Eliza Mahoney
Mary Mahoney was the first black woman to work as a professional nurse. She became a cofounder of a group that fought against minorities in nursing known as National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN). -
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger was a birth control activist and established the American Birth Control League. She went own to pioneer the age of birth control, by continuing her efforts to legalize the use of contraceptives by distribution and articles; eventually, setting up clinics in various countries. -
Annie Goodrich
Annie Goodrich was known as a diplomat among nurses because she was constantly affiliated in nursing affairs locally and internationally. She was credited with developing the first nursing program at Yale university and also became the first woman Dean. -
Mary Breckinridge
Mary Breckinridge was a midwife who founded the Frontier Nursing Service which provided healthcare to children in rural areas such as, the appalacians area of Kentucky. Eventually, upon the outbreak of World War II, the Frontier Graduate school for midwifery was founded and still thrives today. -
Ida V. Moffett
Ida set many standards for nursing students; including, she was the first woman to achieve accreditation in schools; helped to organize peer groups within hospitals; she compiled licensing of practical nursing; and college level degree programs. The Baptist Hospital later renamed themselves Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing to honor her contributions as an Alabama nurse. -
Lillian Holland Harvey
Lillian Harvey was the Dean to Tuskegee Institute. She started the first baccalaureate program for nursing in Alabama. -
Hildegard Peplau
Hildegard Peplau served during World War II in the Army Nurse Corps were she learned the basis to her theory of nurse-client relationships. She believed nurse should not just act out doctors orders, but have a interpersonal relationship with the patient; her theory was published and called "Interpersonal Relations in Nursing". -
Martha Rogers
After she switched her public health nursing career to working at New York University, Martha Rogers continued to work and helped guide the distinct nursing program that now runs at NYU. She published a book called "An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing" which was based on practical nursing and human interaction. -
Virginia Henderson
Virginia Henderson went to the Army School of Nursing. She is famous for her definiton of nursing which delinates the job form medicine: "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 strength, will or knowledge"[1]. -
Dorothea Orem
Dorothea Orem created theory of self care which was known as the Orem model of nursing; the model stated that patients that could not care for themselves were cared for by nurses. During her work with the Nursing Development Conference Group, her theories were validated as concepts. -
Jean Watson
Jean Watson developed ten carative factors known as the Caring Theory. This Theory focused on the true meaning of nursing which was the caring "consciousness" through actions and feelings. During the time of its development, the theory surfaced when people saw negative aspects of nursing such as, sexual or bed pan cleaners. -
Madeleine Leininger
Madeleine Leininger developed the identity of transcultural nursing known as Culture Care Diversity and Universality to help nurses with the diversity of healthcare.
