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Dorothea Dix
Began investigative reform in her home state of Massachusetts, and cared for the mentally ill, also served as Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War. -
Clara Barton
Delivered care to Civil War soldiers and established the American Red Cross in 1881 -
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Became the chief nurse of the Army under General Grant, was known as "Mother Bickerdyke", and became the most well-known Civil War nurse. -
Linda Richards
Was named the superintendent of Boston Training School, where she turned the floundering nursing program into a success. She is noted for developing a system to keep patient records. -
Mary Eliza Mahoney
Became the first Afican American to graduate with her nursing degree and co-founded the Association of Colored Graduate Nurses -
Lavinia Dock
Wrote one of the first nursing textbooks, Materia Medica for Nurses. Worked with many historical nurses of the time, including Adelaide Nutting, who she co-wrote two books with. -
Lillian Wald
Designed a community based care facility, called the Henry Street Settlement in New York city, also an advocate for equal rights. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
Organized the first group of nurses on a national level, called Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Cananda, which was later renamed American Nurses Association -
Mary Adelaide Nutting
Helped found the American Journal of Nursing, also helped needy students earn scholarships -
Annie Goodrich
Served as president for the American Nurses Association and started the first nursing program at Yale University in 1924. -
Margaret Sanger
Founded the first birth control clinic in the United States, when it was illegal to advocate contraception, also founded American Birth Control League in 1921, which later became Planned Parenthood as we know it today. -
Mary Breckinridge
Worked with the Frontier Nursing Service to provide care and aid in the births of babies to rural women. In the 1940s, she helped establish the first midwife training school in the U.S. -
Ida V. Moffett
Helped Tuskegee University gain state accreditation as Alabama's first four year collegiate nursing program. Worked throughout her career to advance nursing education and provide quality care for patients. -
Lillian Holland Harvey
Worked diligently to advance the status of black nurses, as well as nursing as a profession. The first baccalaureate nursing program was started in Alabama under her leadership at Tuskegee University. -
Hildegard Peplau
A nursing theorist, she coined the term "psycho dynamic nursing" to describe the stages of a nurse's relationship with the patient. Also identified six nursing roles. -
Dorothea Orem
Founder of the Orem Model of Nursing, also known as the Self-Care Deficit Nursing theory, which basically states that nurses must give when patients can't care for themselves. -
Virginia Henderson
Was one of the first nurses to state that being a nurse is more than just following the doctor's orders. She published her definition of nursing in 1960, the Basic Principles of Nursing Care -
Martha Rogers
Created what is known as the Science of Unitary Human Beings to classify the nursing profession as a science all its own, distinct of any other science -
Madeleine Leininger
Made a trip to New Guinea in the 1960s, which allowed her to create her theory of transcultural nursing, which basically says that a nurse should understand the culture of their patient to provide adequate care -
Jean Watson
Developed the theory of Human Caring, which is to gain greater harmony in mind, body, and soul.
