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Dorothea Dix
Sh was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses, she received the appointment in June 1861 placing her in charge of all women nurses working in army hospitals. -
Linda Richards
She was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients. She returned to Boston in 1878 to work at the Boston College Hospital where she established a nurse training school. -
Clara Barton
She began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men. She was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. As a pioneer and humanitarian, she risked her life when she was nearly 40 years old to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. Then, at age 60, she founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and led it for the next 23 years. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
One of the founders of modern American nursing theory and one of the most important leaders in the history of nursing. In her time as head of the nursing program there she implemented an array of reforms that set standards for nursing education. Most of these standards are still followed today. One of her most notable contributions to the system of nursing education was the implementation of a grading policy for nursing students. -
Mary Eliza Mahoney
She was the first African American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States, graduating in 1879. In 1908, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) with Adah B. Thoms. The NACGN eventually merged with the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1951. She is commemorated by the biennial Mary Mahoney Award of the ANA for significant contributions in advancing equal opportunities in nursing for members of minority groups. -
Margaret Sanger
She was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood. Sanger's efforts contributed to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case which legalized contraception in the United States. She opened up the first birth control clinic in the united states in 1916. -
Lavinia Dock
She was a nurse, feminist, author, pioneer in nursing education and social activist. Her books included a four volume history of nursing and what was for many years a standard nurse's manual of drugs.She participated in protest movements for women's rights that resulted inwhich granted women the right to vote founded the American Society of superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses of the United States and Canada, a precursor to the current National League for Nursing. -
Annie Goodrich
She developed, and in 1924 became dean of, the first nursing program at Yale University. She was responsible for developing the program into the Yale Graduate School of Nursing ten years later. -
Mary Breckinridge
She was an American nurse-midwife. She also was known as Mary Carson Breckinridge. She started family care centers in the Appalachian mountains. She was known for helping many people with her hospitals. She returned to the United States in 1925 and on May 28 of that year founded the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies, which soon became the Frontier Nursing Service. -
Ida V. Moffett
"Mrs. Moffett", as she was known, was an iconic symbol of nursing care and leadership for Baptist Health System for more than 70 years. Mrs. Moffett served at Princeton Baptist Medical Center the majority of her career and was a mentor to more than 4,000 nurses during her lifetime. She served as the head of nursing for the Baptist hospitals from 1941 to 1970 and believed that "nothing takes the place of the personal touch. -
Hildegard Peplau
As the first published nursing theorist since Florence Nightingale (100 years later), Hildegard E. Peplau created the middle-range nursing theory of Interpersonal Relations and helped revolutionize the scholarly work of nurses. As a primary contributor to mental health laws/reform, she led the way towards humane treatment of patients with behavior and personality disorders (mental illness). Her book on her conceptual framework, Interpersonal Relations in Nursing, was completed in 1948. -
Madeleine Leininger
Her contributions to nursing theory involve the discussion of what it is to care. Most notably, she developed the concept of transcultural nursing, bringing the role of cultural factors in nursing practice into the discussion of how to best attend to those in need of nursing care. Dr. Madeleine Leininger is the founder of the transcultural nursing movement and is one of nursing's most prolific writers. In 1961, her contributions to the nursing theory were published. -
Dorothea Orem
Was a nursing theorist and creator of the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory (SCDNT), also known as the Orem model of nursing. In 1971 Orem published Nursing: Concepts of Practice, the work in which she outlines her theory of nursing, the Self-care Deficit Theory of Nursing. The success of this work and the theory it presents established Orem as a leading theorist of nursing practice and education. -
Martha Rogers
She was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and author. Rogers is best known for developing the Science of Unitary Human Beings and her landmark book, An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing.
Between 1952 and 1975, she was Professor and Head of the Division of Nursing at New York University; she was recognized as Professor Emeritus in 1979. -
Virginia Henderson
She was a nurse, researcher, theorist and author. Henderson is famous for a definition of nursing: "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"
In 1979, the Connecticut Nurses Association established the Virginia Henderson Award for outstanding contributions to nursing research. -
Jean Watson
Watson is well known for her Theory of Human/Transpersonal Caring. She currently (2010) holds an endowed chair at the University of Colorado. She created the non-profit Watson Caring Science Institute in 2008 to further spread her ideas.
