List of nurses
This is a list of famous nurses in history. To be listed here, the nurse must already have a Wiki biography article. For background information see History of nursing and Timeline of nursing history.
A-D
- Lady Harriet Acland, British noblewoman
- Saint Alda, Italian Catholic saint
- Moyra Allen, helped develop the McGill Model of Nursing
- Allen Allensworth famous African-American American Civil War soldier who started as a nurse
- Sir Jonathan Asbridge was the first president of the UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Charles Atangana, paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane in Cameroon
- Martha Ballard, American frontier midwife, great-aunt of Clara Barton
- Ann A. Bernatitus, one of the Angels of Bataan — USN nurses in the Philippines in WW2
- Clara Barton, organized the American Red Cross
- Christine Beasley CBE, Chiefing Nursing Officer for England
- Irene L. Beland, American nursing educator, author of Clinical Nursing: Pathophysiological and Psychosocial Approaches
- Claire Bertschinger Swiss-British nurse who inspired the Band Aid charity movement
- Mary Ann Bickerdyke, nurse during the American Civil War known as "Mother Bickerdyke"
- Florence Blake, American pediatric nursing professor and author
- Florence A. Blanchfield, superintendent of the United States Army Nurse Corps
- Cecilia Blomqvist, Finnish deaconess
- Angela Boškin , first professionally trained Slovenian nurse and social worker in Yugoslavia
- Hilda Bowen, credited with establishing the modern nursing profession in The Bahamas
- Jo Brand, British nurse-turned-comedian
- Elsa Brändström, Swedish World War I Red Cross nurse in Siberia
- Mary Carson Breckinridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
- Vera Brittain, WWI nurse
- Mary Francis Bridgeman, nun and Crimean War nurse
- Ellen Johanne Broe Danish nurse and nursing educator
- Anna Broms, first trained nurse in Finland
- Viola Davis Brown, first African-American to lead a state office of public health nursing in the United States
- Abraão José Bueno, Brazilian nurse and serial killer.
- Carrie E. Bullock, African American nurse
- Vivian Bullwinkel, lone survivor of the Banka Island Massacre, celebrated by the Australian Service Nurses Memorial
- Elizabeth Burchill was an Australian nurse, philanthropist and author
- Betsi Cadwaladr, Welsh nurse who worked alongside Florence Nightingale in the Crimea
- Amanda Cajander,, pioneer in the education of deaconesses and nursing in Finland
- Maude E. Callen, American 20th century nurse-midwife
- Vice Admiral Richard Carmona, Surgeon General of the United States
- Dr Peter Carter OBE, British nurse and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing
- Anne Casey, New Zealand-born pediatric British nurse who developed Casey's model of nursing
- Edith Cavell, heroine of World War I
- Maria Cederschiöld , pioneer in the education of deaconesses and nursing in Sweden
- Ellen Christensen, Danish nurse and resistance fighter
- Luther Christman, first male dean of a U.S. nursing program; established the Rush model of nursing
- Dame June Clark, Professor at University of Swansea
- Louise Conring, first trained nurse in Denmark, head of Copenhagen's Deaconess Institute
- Lady Diana Cooper, prominent social figure in London and Paris, widely acknowledged as the beauty of the century
- Cubah Cornwallis, Jamaican nurse and "doctoress" who treated Nelson and William IV when they were stationed in the West Indies.
- Paul Crawford, pioneer of the field of health humanities
- Evelyn May Cridlan, British nurse and ambulance driver in the First World War
- Harriet Patience Dame, nurse during the American Civil War, served with the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry.
- Grace Ebun Delano, pioneer of reproductive health services in Nigeria
- Jane Delano, founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service
- Maria de Villegas de Saint-Pierre founded the Saint-Camille Nursing School and directed the Élisabeth Hospital in Poperinge during World War I
- Edith DeVoe 1st African-American nurse to serve in the regular Navy, World War II and Korean War nurse
- Marion Dewar, mayor of Ottawa and a member of the Parliament
- Dorothea Dix, superintendent of Army Nurses during the American Civil War
- Josephine Dolan, nursing historian and educator at the University of Connecticut
- Mary Donaldson, Baroness Donaldson of Lymington, Lord Mayor of London
- Sister Dora, British 19th century nurse
- Ellen Dougherty, first Registered Nurse
- Rosalie Dreyer Swiss-born, naturalized British nurse and administrator who led the conversion from a volunteer service to the profession of nursing in Britain
- Diane Duane American science fiction and fantasy author
E-L
- Sarah Emma Edmundson, Canadian-American author who served with the Union Army in the American Civil War
- Victoria Joyce Ely, Florida's first licensed midwife. Conducted training programs for midwives in the state
- Queen Fabiola of Belgium
- Saint Fabiola
- Helen Fairchild, World War I nurse
- Florence Farmborough, British nurse who kept diaries of her service during World War I as a Red Cross nurse with the Imperial Russian army
- Ethel Gordon Fenwick, British nurse who campaigned for a law limiting nursing to "registered" nurses only
- Erna Flegel, Adolf Hitler's nurse
- Alma E. Foerster, American nurse who served in World War I, received the Florence Nightingale Medal and then worked in the United States Public Health Service
- Elizabeth Warham Forster, American nurse who served the Navajo Nation and advocated for their retention of traditional medicine practices
- Michiko Fujiwara, Japanese nurse who later became a politician
- Genevieve de Galard, French nurse during the French war in Indochina
- Eliza George, American Civil War nurse
- Abigail Hopper Gibbons, abolitionist activist during the American Civil War
- Helen L. Gilson, American Civil War nurse
- Marjory Gordon, nursing theorist and professor who created a nursing assessment theory known as Gordon's functional health patterns
- Kate Gosselin, American television personality
- Cornelia Hancock, American Civil War nurse
- Lucille Hegamin, blues recording artist
- Virginia Henderson, 'First Lady of Nursing", American nurse theorist
- Bodil Hellfach, Danish nurse, deputy head of the Danish Nurses' Organization
- Lenah Higbee, pioneering U.S. Navy nurse during World War I
- Gerda Höjer, recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal and President of the International Council of Nurses
- Dame Agnes Hunt, British Orthopaedic Nursing pioneer
- Alberta Hunter, jazz singer
- Rachela Hutner Polish pioneer nurse, credited with establishing the modern Polish nursing profession
- Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman and nurse
- Sally Lucas Jean, American health educator and nurse
- Victoria Jensen, deaconess, nursing supervisor, from 1914 head of Copenhagen's Deaconess Institute
- Hazel Johnson-Brown, first African-American head of the United States Army Nurse Corps
- June Jolly, British pioneer of children's nursing
- Virginia Clinton Kelley, mother of United States President Bill Clinton
- Dame Betty Kershaw, Professor at Sheffield
- Eunice Muringo Kiereini,, Chief Nursing Officer of Kenya and first African president of the International Council of Nurses
- Docia Kisseih,, initiated advances in nursing and nurse training in post-independence Ghana
- Nancy J. Lescavage, Director of the Navy Nurse Corps
- Daurene Lewis, first black woman mayor in North America.
- Janet Lim, nurse at St. Andrew's Community Hospital. She was the first nurse from Singapore to study in Britain. She was inducted as 2014 Singapore Women's Hall of Fame.
- Mary Todd Lincoln, volunteer nurse during the American Civil War
- Kate Lorig, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine
- Ljubica Luković, established the first nurses' training course in Serbia and in 1925 was posthumously awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal
- Courtney Lyder, first black dean of the UCLA School of Nursing
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- Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
- Mary Eliza Mahoney, first professionally trained African-American nurse
- Jeanne Mance, French nurse, founder of Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal.
- Sophie Mannerheim, pioneer of modern nursing in Finland
- Marie Manthey, one of the originators of Primary Nursing
- Louise de Marillac, founder of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul
- Kate Marsden, British missionary nurse
- Anna Maxwell, U.S. Army nurse whose activities were crucial to the growth of professional nursing in America
- Carolyn McCarthy, American politician
- Jean McFarlane, Baroness McFarlane of Llandaff
- Louisa McLaughlin, one of the first British Red Cross nurses, served in two wars
- Louise McManus, first nurse to earn a PhD Referred to as Louise McManus
- Agda Meyerson, pioneering Swedish nurse
- Anne Milton, British Member of Parliament
- Jane Minor, aka Gensey Snow, 1792–1858, African-American healer, midwife, and slave emancipator
- Naomi Mitchison, British novelist and poet
- Jeannine Moquin-Perry, Canadian religious and political activist
- Sarah Mullally British Chief Nursing Officer and Bishop of London
- Charlotte Munck, Danish nurse, important figure in the training of nurses
- Annie Murray Scottish nurse who went to the Spanish Civil War
- Razan al-Najar, Palestinian nurse shot during a rescue in 2018 Gaza border protests.
- Elizabeth Grace Neill, Kiwi nurse
- Bonnie Nettles, co-leader of the Heaven's Gate religious cult
- Nora Neve, pioneer of missionary nursing in Kashmir
- Florence Nightingale, pioneer of modern nursing
- Clara Noyes, enrolled 20,000 Red Cross nurses for World War I service, founded the first school for midwives in the U.S.
- Emily Elizabeth Parsons American Civil War nurse, hospital administrator, and founder of Mt. Auburn Hospital
- Emma Maria Pearson, writer and one of the first British Red Cross nurses, served in two wars
- Hildegard Peplau, first published nursing theorist since Florence Nightingale. She created the middle-range nursing theory of interpersonal relations
- Anita Thigpen Perry, First Lady of Texas
- Jill Pettis, New Zealand Member of Parliament
- Lynne Pillay, New Zealand Member of Parliament
- Kerry Prendergast, Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand
- Tom Quinn, influential UK Professor of Cardiac nursing
- Emmy Rappe, Swedish pioneer in the education of nurses
- Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, Miss America 1988
- Claire Rayner, British journalist, agony aunt and activist
- Linda Richards, America's first professionally trained nurse
- Isabel Hampton Robb, helped develop early programs of nursing education
- Rachel Robinson, wife of baseball star Jackie Robinson
- Debbie Rowe, wife of singer Michael Jackson
- Elaine Roe, U.S. Army nurse, one of the first four women to be awarded the Silver Star
S-Z
- Margaret Sanger, founder of the U.S. birth control movement.
- Betty Schmoll, founder of Hospice of Dayton, one of the first hospice programs in the United States.
- Lynda Scott, New Zealand MP.
- Mary Seacole, Jamaican British nurse in the Crimean War known as "the Black Florence Nightingale".
- Schwester Selma, German-Jewish head nurse in Jerusalem, known as "the Jewish Florence Nightingale".
- Nigar Shikhlinskaya, first Azerbaijani nurse.
- Kapelwa Sikota, first Zambian registered nurse.
- Kathleen Simon, Viscountess Simon, British abolitionist.
- Jessie Sleet Scales, first black public health nurse in the United States.
- Myrah Keating Smith nurse, midwife, only medical provider on Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands for two decades
- Mabel Keaton Staupers, advocate for racial equality in the nursing profession during era of American segregation.
- Daphne Steele, Guyanese Matron, was the first Black Matron in the British NHS.
- Margaretta Styles, American advocate for standardization of nursing credentials, University of California, San Francisco Nursing School dean, past president of the American Nurses Association and International Council of Nurses.
- Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, pioneering African-American rights activist, who fought for African-American nurses to be permitted to serve in the U.S. armed forces.
- Violetta Thurstan, nurse in WWI, decorated for bravery.
- Sally Louisa Tompkins, humanitarian and philanthropist during the American Civil War.
- Harriet Tubman, African-American abolitionist.
- Florence Wald, founder of the hospice movement in the U.S.
- Lillian Wald, founder of visiting nursing in the U.S.
- Jean Watson, an American nurse theorist and nursing professor, best known for her Theory of Human Caring.
- Faye Wattleton, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
- Elizabeth Wettlaufer, Canadian serial killer who murdered eight of her patients with insulin injections.
- Walt Whitman, American poet, American Civil War nurse.
- Sarah Palmer Young, American Civil War nurse, author of a memoir.
- Tome Yoshida, Japanese nurse.
- Sophie Zahrtmann, deaconess, nurse, head of Copenhagen's Deaconess Institute