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Dorothea Dix
Traveled to East Chambridge Jail and realized the appalling conditions at the facility wer no place for people with mental conditions. She would begin traveling to jails and almshouses all over the United States reforming the treatment and conditions of the facilities. -
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Became known as "Mother" Bickerdyke to the Union soldiers she cared for at the Fort Donelson field hospital during the beginning of the Civil War. She would also be responsible for the survival of the small town of Ciaro, Illinois by delivering much needed medical supplies. -
Linda Richards
After her graduation from nursing school she would move to New York and work at the Bellevue Hospital, here she designed a system for keeping seperate records for each patient. Her system would be adopted by St. Thomas Hospital, which was founded by Florence Nightingale. -
Mary Eliza Mahoney
She was the only black, and one of only three, graduates from nursing school in that year. She would change the face of nursing, and made it possible for black students who met the requirements to enter into nursing schools. -
Clara Barton
Founded the American Red Cross, at the time it was set up to aid soldiers during the Civil War. It would grow to its modern form in 1884 when Barton and other members collected supplies and aided survivors victimized by the Midwestern flood of that same year. -
Lavina Dock
Complied her drug manuel for nurses called "Materia Medica for Nurses." The book detailed known drugs and uses in that time period and would begin the study of them in nursing schools. -
Mary Adelaide Nutting
Became superintendent of John Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing, which she was also one of the first graduates of. She would expand the ciriculum, introduce the clinical training phase, and establish an 8 hour working day for nurses. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
Founded the Nurse's Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, later named the National League of Nursing. It was the premier organization for nurses both students and leaders, in education, faculty development, networking, testing, research grants, and public policy. -
Lillian Wald
Founded the Henry Street Settlement, which employed many other influential nurses. She was also known as the founder "visiting nursing," or what is commonly known today as Home Health/Care Nursing. -
Margaret Sanger
Founded the American Birth Control League which advocated the use of birth control, and the "dangers of uncontrolled procreation." This program would later be renamed and become the modern Planned Parenthood Association. -
Annie Goodrich
Became the first Dean of Nursing at Yale University. This would be the first nursing school set up soley as a school for nurses, with its own dean, faculty, budget, and degree standards. -
Mary Breckinridge
Started the Frontier Nursing Service in the Appalachian region of Kentucky, to provide health care to poor people who lived in the mountain settlements. She would train midwives to practice throughout Kentucky, greatly reducing both infant and maternal mortality rates. -
Lillian Holland Harvey
Created and lead the first baccalaureate of nursing program in the state of Alabama. In 1978 she would become the first Dean of Nursing at Tuskegee University in Alabama. -
Hildegard Peplau
Created the term "psychodynamic nursing" which involved four phases: orientation, indentification, exploitation, and resolution. She emphasized the need for a good nurse-client relationship and explained six roles every nurse must play: stranger role, resource role, counseling role, surrogate role, and active leadership. -
Virginia Henderson
Recieved funding for the Nursing Studies Index Project. The outcome of this project was a four volume Nursing Studies Index, that became the first annotated index of nursing research. -
Ida Moffett
Became the directior of the largest nursing school in Alabama, The Birmingham Baptist Medical Center School of Nursing. She would develop the first licensed practical nursing programs in the state of Alabama, and the first two-year nursing degree. -
Martha Rogers
Created her theory called the Science of Unitary Human Beings, which would explain how humans and their environments were "infinate fields of energy in constant motion." She would also publish her book "An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing." -
Dorothea Orem
Established her "Self-Care Deficit Theory" of Nursing. And would write the famous "Nursing: Concepts of Practice," now in its 6th Edition. -
Jean Watson
Published her theory of nursing called "the philosophy and science of caring." She believed that the main focus in nursing was to care, saying nursing needed to develop "humanistic philosophies and value systems." She would show the need for nurses to have strong liberal arts backgrounds. -
Madeleine Leininger
Founded the Transcultural Nursing Movement and the Culture Care Diversity and Universiality Theory, detailing how a "professional nurse interacts with the concept of culture." She explained that "culturally congruent care is essential for clients for the well being or to gain and remain healthy."
