Virginia Henderson Essay

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Nursing Pioneer: Virginia A. Henderson
Virginia Avenel Henderson was a nurse, teacher, writer, and a theorist. Miss Henderson was born to Lucy Abbott Henderson and Daniel B. Henderson on November 30, 1897 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her mother named her after the state she longed for, to where her family relocated in 1901. She was born the fifth of eight children. She went to Bellevue which is a preparatory school owned by her grandfather William Richardson Abbot. Virginia’s father was a former teacher at Bellevue, which may have influenced Miss Henderson’s dedication to teaching, her father was also an Attorney for Native American Indians, his most successful case being one that he won for the Klamath Tribe in 1937.
Virginia’s schooling was completed with a lot of regard and attention to detail, her entrance to nursing school was initially delayed due to the fact that her time at Bellevue did not earn her a diploma. When she did start school it was at Army School of Nursing in Washington D.C. in 1918, earning her degree shortly after in 1921. Virginia returned to school in 1929 at the Teachers College, Columbia University where she earned her Bachelor’s of Science in the year 1932 and …show more content…

Shortly after earning her degree at the Army School of Nursing she accepted her first position as an instructor. Ten years after that she accepted a position to work with the nurse faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. Following that, from 1959-1971 Virginia was directing the Nursing Studies Index Project, which is the first annotated index of Nursing Research and teaching engagements. Coming into 1975 Miss Henderson decided to gear her work more towards engagements and international speaking eventually getting a library named after her - The Virginia Henderson International Nursing library, which was named for her by the Nursing Society, Sigma Theta Tau International, in a thanks to the impact she made globally in nursing

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