Nurses Who Shaped the Future of Care

This May, we are celebrating our nurses and you, the aspiring nurses, shaping the future of healthcare. This is a time to celebrate your curiosity, resilience, and commitment to learning. Together, we recognize your growth as future leaders who will bring knowledge, innovation, and care to patients and communities worldwide.​

In honor of International Nurses Day, let’s look back in time and recognize the tremendous impact and influence these important figures had on nursing that are still present today.

Florence Nightingale:

• She established the first nursing philosophy based on health maintenance and restoration
• Florence was the first practicing nurse epidemiologist. Her statistical analyses connected poor sanitation with the incidence of cholera and dysentery.
• She volunteered during the Crimean war, where she improved sanitation conditions at battlefield hospitals. The mortality rate at the Barracks Hospital in Scutari, Turkey, decreased from 42.7% to 2.2% in 6 months due to her work.

Clara Barton:

• Founder of the American Red Cross
• Served as a nurse on the battlefields of the American Civil War, providing wound and other essential care

There are countless other nurses who served as pioneers, leading impactful advances within nursing.

Mary Mahoney, the first professionally educated African-American nurse, was a nursing leader, that encouraged cultural diversity and respect for the individual, regardless of background, race, color, or religion.

Lillian Wald and Mary Brewster expanded nursing work to communities, which was only primarily taking place in hospitals, and opened the Henry Street Settlement in 1893, which focused on the health needs of poor people who lived in tenements in New York City.

Mary Adelaide Nutting became the first nursing professor at Columbia Teachers College in 1906. She had an instrumental in bringing nursing into universities and higher education.

Just as these trailblazers led with their passion and curiosity, you too will drive the future of care, and we will be here to support you along the way.