Virginia Henderson

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Fifty years ago this month, in the August issue of AJN, Virginia A. Henderson, one of nursing’s giants, explained how she came to her 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.” (We’ve made the article, “The Nature of Nursing,” free until September 30. Click through to the PDF under “Article Tools.”)

Many (older) nurses may remember Henderson as one of the authors of Harmer and Henderson’s The Principles and Practices of Nursing, a mainstay textbook for nursing schools, or for her internationally published book, Basic Principles of Nursing Care, which was translated widely. She also taught nursing at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and then later at Yale University, where she developed a comprehensive index of nursing research. But her accomplishments went far beyond that. Her writings helped change how nursing was being regarded—from an occupation that existed only to provide physicians with helpmates to a scholarly, independent profession.

I had the good fortune to meet Henderson in the early 1990s, when she came to AJN’s offices to meet with Fred Pattison, AJN’s librarian at the time, who was also the editor of the International Nursing Index. She was warm, engaging, down-to-earth, and had […]