Nurses are the heroes who have seen the most human suffering and decided to do something about it. Behind every breakthrough in healthcare, there’s a nurse who refused to back down. Some of the most famous nurses in history weren't simply bandaging wounds and calling it a day; they were saving lives, and through that, changing the understanding of what it meant to truly help others. Five of the most influential nurse leaders you'll hear about are:
- Florence Nightingale
- Clara Barton
- Mary Eliza Mahoney
- Margaret Sanger
- Edith Cavell
This article will walk through the lives and legacies of fifteen women who made change happen instead of waiting for it. Their stories remind us that one determined person really can shape the future of one of the biggest industries in the world.
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The Most Famous Nurses in History
Nursing has a long history of quiet heroes who changed everything by showing up when it mattered most. These people stepped forward because they believed care could be better. The work of these 15 famous nurses changed healthcare in ways we still see every day.
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Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is remembered as the founder of modern nursing, but her influence reaches far beyond this specific title. This was the woman who changed what healthcare meant at a time when hospitals were places people went to die, not get better. But Florence Nightingale believed that healthcare should be a basic human right. Her work raised standards in the field, turned the nursing profession into something respectable, and inspired generations of nurse leaders who came after her.
- Birth Date: May 12, 1820
- Place of Birth: Florence, Italy
- Education: Home education in non-medical subjects; formal education at the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses in Kaiserswerth, Germany
- Early Life and Career: Grew up in a wealthy British family; she always felt a calling toward nursing, but her family opposed the decision. She first began working during the Crimean War.
- Key Achievements:
- Revolutionized hospital sanitation practices
- Established the first scientifically based nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital in London
- Authored 'Notes on Nursing,' a foundational text for nursing education.
- Impact on Healthcare: Set new standards for hygiene and sanitation, changed hospital design, and patient care. The methods she used noticeably reduced death rates in hospitals. She laid the foundation for the American Nurses Association and many future healthcare reforms.
- Major Challenges Faced: She had to battle the military and medical establishments and fight health issues caused by her work in poor conditions.
Anna Caroline Maxwell
Anna Caroline Maxwell taught and lived nursing. She's often referred to as "the American Florence Nightingale" because she managed to set professional standards in the field at a time when formal training didn't really exist. It was her work that raised the reputation of nurses all across the country.
- Birth Date: March 14, 1851
- Place of Birth: Bristol, New York, USA
- Education: Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses
- Early Life and Career: Began her nursing career in the aftermath of the Civil War; quickly recognized the need for better training and conditions for nurses
- Key Achievements:
- Co-founded the Army Nurse Corps
- Helped establish the first nursing school at Presbyterian Hospital (now Columbia University School of Nursing)
- Advocated for higher educational standards in nursing
- Impact on Healthcare: Pushed the existing norms of education, which was a huge step for modern nursing programs in the country.
- Major Challenges Faced: Faced skepticism from the medical field about women's roles in healthcare leadership.
Clara Barton
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross, an association that still holds the responsibility of emergency assistance in the United States. The story of this particular nurse, though, runs much deeper than that. Clara Barton spent her life in crisis zones, saving people's lives in places where most people wouldn't even dare to go. Because of her fearless work on battlefields, she's sometimes considered the best nurse ever in American history.
- Birth Date: December 25, 1821
- Place of Birth: North Oxford, Massachusetts, USA
- Education: Local formal schooling; self-taught in advanced subjects
- Early Life and Career: Worked as a teacher and patent clerk before becoming a nurse during the Civil War
- Key Achievements:
- Founded the American Red Cross
- Provided medical supplies and aid during the Civil War
- Fought for the rights of missing soldiers' families
- Impact on Healthcare: Introduced organized emergency response and relief efforts, according to which disaster medicine still operates today.
- Major Challenges Faced: Had to fight severe personal health issues and widespread criticism as a woman in leadership.
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix wasn't planning on becoming a nurse. She became one simply because something had to be done, and no one else was willing to step up. She is best known for her fierce fight for the mentally ill; her work in psychiatric nursing changed how people valued compassionate care in hospitals and asylums.
- Birth Date: April 4, 1802
- Place of Birth: Hampden, Maine, USA
- Education: She was largely self-educated, later worked as a teacher
- Early Life and Career: She started as a teacher and writer before dedicating her life to social reform
- Key Achievements:
- Established the first generation of mental asylums in the U.S.
- Served as Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War
- Championed healthcare rights for prisoners and the mentally ill
- Impact on Healthcare: She pushed healthcare systems to recognize mental health as part of patient care, which was a huge shift in thinking at the time.
- Major Challenges Faced: Faced major stigma against mental health advocacy.
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman is best known for risking her life helping enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad. That same courage followed her onto Civil War battlefields, where healing the wounded was her new mission. She cared for wounded soldiers in rough field hospitals with the same determination as on the road to freedom.
- Birth Date: Around March 1822
- Place of Birth: Dorchester County, Maryland, USA
- Education: No formal education
- Early Life and Career: Escaped slavery and committed herself to freeing others and serving the Union Army
- Key Achievements:
- Served as a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army
- Advocated for better care for African American soldiers and veterans
- Impact on Healthcare: Showed that formal systems weren't needed for compassionate healthcare.
- Major Challenges Faced: Constant threats to her safety and racial discrimination.
Estelle Massey Osborne
Estelle Massey Osborne shattered barriers that were believed to be unbreakable by many. She saw it as her personal mission to advocate for the equality of African American nurses within the field so they could have equal rights and opportunities in an era where discrimination was everywhere.
- Birth Date: 1901
- Place of Birth: Palestine, Texas, USA
- Education: St. Louis City Hospital #2; Teachers College, Columbia University
- Early Life and Career: Worked as a teacher before turning to nursing after a personal experience with hospital care
- Key Achievements:
- First African American woman to earn a master's degree in nursing education
- Served as president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
- Worked with the American Nurses Association
- Impact on Healthcare: Pushed for inclusivity and better training programs at nursing institutions across the country
- Major Challenges Faced: Overcame systemic racism and opposition to integration in healthcare settings.
Adah Belle Thoms
Adah Belle Thoms spent her life pushing for recognition that African American nurses deserved but were too often denied. At a time when nurses of color were excluded, she was the one who pushed for equal opportunities and fought to make sure the nursing profession opened its doors to everyone. It was because of Adah Belle Thoms's work that helped generations of African American nurses start their nursing careers.
- Birth Date: January 12, 1870
- Place of Birth: Richmond, Virginia, USA
- Education: Women's Infirmary and School of Therapeutic Massage; graduate of Lincoln Hospital and Nursing Home, New York
- Early Life and Career: Worked as a teacher before pursuing nursing at a time when opportunities for African American women were few
- Key Achievements:
- Acting head of Lincoln Hospital and Nursing Home without formal title recognition
- Co-founder of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
- Advocated for the inclusion of African American nurses in the American Red Cross during World War I
- Impact on Healthcare: Helped break down racial barriers and open doors for future influential nurse leaders.
- Major Challenges Faced: Had to fight deep-rooted discrimination across education and professional opportunities.
Mary Eliza Mahoney
Mary Eliza Mahoney didn’t seek the spotlight, but her achievements lit the way for countless others. She was the first African American to earn a professional nursing license in the United States, which broke through barriers that had kept many out of the field. Mary Eliza dedicated her life to proving that nursing was about skill and compassion, not the color of someone's skin.
- Birth Date: May 7, 1845
- Place of Birth: Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA
- Education: New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses
- Early Life and Career: Worked at the New England Hospital for over a decade in various roles before formally entering nursing school
- Key Achievements:
- First African American woman to earn a professional nursing license
- Co-founder of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
- Advocate for equal rights within the American Nurses Association
- Impact on Healthcare: Advocated for excellence and diversity in nursing, which helped prove that nurses could come from anywhere.
- Major Challenges Faced: Battled racial prejudice at every turn.
Margaret Sanger
A belief that women should have control over their own bodies was radical at Margaret Sanger's time, but she fought for it anyway. She trained as a nurse and saw firsthand how essential reproductive healthcare was for women and families, which urged her to open the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916.
- Birth Date: September 14, 1879
- Place of Birth: Corning, New York, USA
- Education: Claverack College; White Plains Hospital nursing school
- Early Life and Career: Worked as a visiting nurse in New York’s poorest neighborhoods, where she witnessed the devastating effects of unwanted pregnancies
- Key Achievements:
- Founded the organization that became Planned Parenthood
- Advocated for contraceptive rights and education
- Published widely on women’s health and family planning
- Impact on Healthcare: Forced healthcare systems to recognize reproductive rights as part of patient care.
- Major Challenges Faced: She faced legal action and was arrested for her activism.
Edith Cavell
Edith Cavell saw nursing as a duty to humanity, not to politics. During World War I, while working in German-occupied Belgium, she secretly helped more than 200 Allied soldiers escape to safety from German-occupied Belgium, which led to her execution by the German forces when she was just 49. She refused to turn away from anyone who needed help and cared for patients on both sides. Edith Cavell's courage and compassion in wartime still remind the world that nursing stands for saving the lives of all people. She was exec
- Birth Date: December 4, 1865
- Place of Birth: Swardeston, Norfolk, England
- Education: Royal London Hospital nursing school
- Early Life and Career: Worked as a governess before entering nursing school; later became a matron and educator
- Key Achievements:
- Helped over 200 Allied soldiers escape during World War I
- Modernized nursing programs in Belgium
- Became a symbol of humanitarian care in wartime
- Impact on Healthcare: Proved that ethical care stands above politics, which strengthens public respect for nursing.
- Major Challenges Faced: Executed by German forces for her underground work
Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth)
Before she became known as Sojourner Truth, Isabella Baumfree lived through the worst kind of injustice. After gaining her freedom, she spent her life fighting for the rights of African Americans and women. She worked as a nurse long before formal education even existed for people like her.
- Birth Date: Around 1797
- Place of Birth: Swartekill, New York, USA
- Education: No formal education
- Early Life and Career: Born into slavery; escaped with her infant daughter to freedom; later became an activist and public speaker
- Key Achievements:
- Served as a nurse for the National Freedman's Relief Association
- Advocated for better healthcare, jobs, and education for freed slaves
- Became a leading voice for abolition and women's rights
- Impact on Healthcare: She used her platform to push for better treatment and health services for marginalized communities.
- Major Challenges Faced: Overcame systemic racism, sexism, and poverty to become a national leader.
Susie King Taylor
Susie King Taylor never waited for permission to make a change. She lived a life full of firsts: she was born into slavery yet managed to start working as a nurse volunteer and even become the first African American nurse during the Civil War. Later, she published memoirs that gave a rare insight into the war's realities.
- Birth Date: August 6, 1848
- Place of Birth: Liberty County, Georgia, USA
- Education: Secretly educated while enslaved; later continued self-education
- Early Life and Career: Gained freedom early in the Civil War; began serving as a nurse for the 1st South Carolina Volunteers
- Key Achievements:
- First African American nurse officially working with an Army regiment
- Author of Reminiscences of My Life in Camp
- Advocate for education and veterans’ rights
- Impact on Healthcare: Cared for patients under harsh conditions when official support for African American soldiers was almost nonexistent.
- Major Challenges Faced: Battled systemic racism, lack of formal support, and the hardships of wartime nursing.
Kofoworola Abeni Pratt
Kofoworola Abeni Pratt dreamt of becoming a nurse and built a path for thousands to follow on the way to her dream. She was the first African American nurse to work in Britain's National Health Service (NHS); this fact alone meant broken barriers in a system that wasn't ready for her yet. After her return to Nigeria, Kofoworola pushed for professional standards in nursing that would last for generations.
- Birth Date: 1915
- Place of Birth: Lagos, Nigeria
- Education: Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London
- Early Life and Career: Grew up in colonial Nigeria; was determined to pursue nursing despite obstacles
- Key Achievements:
- First African American nurse in Britain’s NHS
- Chief Nursing Officer in Nigeria
- Key figure in professionalizing Nigerian nursing
- Impact on Healthcare: Helped shape modern nursing across two continents and advocated for opportunities for African nurses.
- Major Challenges Faced: Battled racial prejudice and colonial-era barriers to education.
Luther Christman
Nursing has long been seen as a women’s profession, but back in the early 20th century, men were often completely pushed out of it. Luther Christman spent his career challenging those old ideas about who belonged in nursing. Beyond his fights for inclusion, he pushed to raise academic standards across the entire field. His work helped move nursing forward and played a big part in shaping it into the profession we know today.
- Birth Date: February 26, 1915
- Place of Birth: Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, USA
- Education: Michigan State College; University of Michigan (BSN and PhD)
- Early Life and Career: Worked as an orderly before nursing school and often faced discrimination for being a man in a female-dominated field
- Key Achievements:
- Founded the Rush University College of Nursing
- Developed the first integrated nursing program for men and women
- Advocated for nurse practitioners and advanced practice roles
- Impact on Healthcare: Changed the definition of a nurse and helped create opportunities for men in nursing.
- Major Challenges Faced: Faced resistance from nursing schools and employers simply because of his gender.
Mabel Keaton Staupers
Mabel Keaton Staupers knew change wasn’t going to come on its own, so she made it happen. She spent her life fighting for the rights of African American nurses, pushing against the racial barriers that kept them out of the profession itself. Her determination helped open doors that had been closed for far too long.
- Birth Date: February 27, 1890
- Place of Birth: Barbados
- Education: Freedmen’s Hospital School of Nursing, Washington, D.C.
- Early Life and Career: Immigrated to the U.S. as a child; entered nursing school when few opportunities existed for African American women
- Key Achievements:
- Executive Secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
- Instrumental in integrating the American Nurses Association
- Advocate for African American nurses’ participation in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps
- Impact on Healthcare: Fought racial barriers in nursing schools, hospitals, and professional organizations.
- Major Challenges Faced: Faced deep-rooted racism in the healthcare system and society.
Read Also: If you're inspired by these remarkable nurses and want to share their stories in a fun, engaging way, check out these entertainment speech topics for more inspiration.
How Nursing Roles Have Evolved Over Time
Nursing hasn’t stayed in one place. It was mostly seen as bedside care, but today, this profession looks completely different. Nurses are often the ones involved in decision-making, helping guide hospital policies and patient treatment plans. Their voice has become valuable in conversations about healthcare reforms.
Much of the nursing profession has now become digital. But today’s nurses still need some basic skills like knowing how to write in cursive, especially when they have to complete handwritten documentation during emergencies or system failures.
The growth of the nursing field caused its expansion into specialized areas, too. Nurses now lead the way and offer care in areas where once only doctors were expected to step up: oncology, pediatrics, and geriatrics. Specialized roles have expanded what it means to be a nurse and opened new paths for professional growth. Healthcare systems rely on nursing leaders to bring patient-centered care into every corner of the industry.
How Nurses Are Making a Difference in Global Health
Nurses are part of every major effort to improve health around the world. They are often the ones people turn to first in the aftermath of disasters or in places where medical resources are stretched thin. Their work with groups like the World Health Organization restores hope in underprivileged communities and helps them heal far beyond the immediate crisis.
The American Nurses Association fights to raise healthcare standards and support nurses all around the world. Nurses bring the same dedication and commitment to healing regardless of where they are - in crowded refugee camps, disaster zones, or busy city hospitals. Their work goes far beyond saving lives: every life nurses touch moves global healthcare a little further.
Some of the most influential nurses have shared their experiences through personal memoirs and firsthand accounts of their work, which help us better understand their influence on global healthcare.
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Famous Nurses Today
Today's nurses are setting new standards and traditions. Across hospitals and global health organizations, nursing leaders are constantly changing healthcare education and the basics of patient care. Some are developing brand-new models of care that focus on treating the person fully, not just a specific disease. Others are redesigning nursing education programs so that future generations are better prepared for modern healthcare. Some nurses are even stepping into executive roles so they can have a bigger say in hospital policies and prioritize both patients and staff. Here are a few nurse leaders who are the most influential today:
- Dr. Ernest Grant has spent his career strengthening the nursing profession. As President of the American Nurses Association, he’s pushed for better leadership opportunities and fought to bring more diversity into healthcare. When the pandemic hit hardest, it was Ernest Grant who helped guide the national response and provided care to people who needed it the most.
- Dr. Karen A. Daley turned a personal injury into a national movement. She suffered a serious needle-stick injury and tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C a few months later. After that, she became one of the loudest voices fighting for workplace safety and protecting nurses from risks that were often ignored.
- Dr. Loretta Ford opened new doors for patients everywhere. She co-founded the academic program for nurse practitioners and made healthcare much more accessible by giving communities faster ways to get the care they needed. She passed away at the age of 104 just a few months ago, at the beginning of 2025.
- Dr. Patricia Grady helped bring research closer to the realities nurses face every day. As director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, she pushed for studies on chronic illness, the challenges of aging, and the gaps that keep healthcare out of reach for many. Her leadership made nursing science more connected to real patient care, not just academic theory.
- Dr. Deborah Trautman is helping create a new generation of nurses who are ready to lead, not just follow. As CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, she’s rethinking how nursing education works, making critical thinking and leadership a core part of every program. Her focus is on preparing students for a world where nurses drive the change.
Wrapping Things Up
The stories of famous nurses show how much one person’s work can change the future. The nurses we look up to today didn’t just show up for their patients but rather kept pushing against broken systems, no matter the cost. They did everything they could to build something better and managed to leave behind a legacy that we still respect today.
If one of the famous nurses in history inspired you to follow their footsteps, but you find it overwhelming to keep up with tough shifts and endless assignments, you can always ask for an extra hand. Whenever you're sitting there thinking, 'I wish I could just pay someone to do my online class!', let EssayPro's expert academic writers give you all the support you need.
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Ana is a professional literary essay writer with a Master’s Degree in English literature. Through critical analysis and an understanding of storytelling techniques, she can craft insightful guides on how to write literary analysis essays and their structures so students can improve their writing skills.
- lorioswald. (2023, February 7). 26 Famous Nurses Throughout History. Post University. https://post.edu/blog/famous-nurses-throughout-history/
- Baylor University. (2022, May 27). 13 famous nurses who shaped the world of nursing | baylor university. Onlinenursing.baylor.edu. https://onlinenursing.baylor.edu/news/13-famous-nurses-who-shaped-world-nursing
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