Anna Reijnvaan

Anna Reynvaan (5 April 1844 – 19 March 1920), was a Dutch nurse and a pioneer within the nursing profession in the Netherlands.

Reynvaan was the first professionally trained nurse in the Netherlands.

She was born Johanna Paulina Reynvaan. Her father was a tobacco merchant and her mother died when she was ten years old; during the Franco-Prussian War she expressed an interest in nursing, but was not able to do so at that time as she did not have her father's permission.

Reynvaan was educated at the first Nursing School opened in 1878 at the initiative of Jeltje de Bosch Kemper, who wished to introduce the profession of the educated medical nurse in the Netherlands. Reynvaan graduated as a nurse in 1880 and was, as such, the first professionally trained nurse of her nation. She was employed at the hospital Amsterdam Binnengasthuis,

Legacy

The Amsterdam University Medical Center runs an annual nursing conference named the Anna Reynvaan Event.

The Anna Reynvaan Prize is awarded to nurses who show outstanding work to improve patient care through science.

The city of Hengelo has a street named after Reynvaan; there is a psychiatric hospital at Anna Reynvaanweg 54.