Virginia Henderson

Virginia Avenel Henderson (November 30, 1897 – March 19, 1996) was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and writer.

Education and career Henderson's early education was at home in Virginia with her aunts and her uncle at an all-boys school. In 1921, Henderson graduated from the US Army School of Nursing in Washington, D.C. She received a BS in 1931 or 1932 and a Master's degree in 1934 from Teachers College, Columbia University. She received the Virginia Historical Nurse Leadership Award in 1985. Not only are nurses responsible for the patient, but also to help the patient be themselves when they leave their care. This assures that the patient has fewer obstacles during recovery from being sick or injured, and helping getting back into self-care is easier when a nurse is there to motivate until the patient goes home.

Death She died in 1996 at age 98 at the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Connecticut, and was interred in her family's plot of the churchyard of St. Stephen's Church, Forest, Bedford County, Virginia. She is survived by her great niece, Catherine Mark Burdge, a nurse practitioner in Fairfield, Connecticut and a graduate of the Yale School of Nursing.

Legacy Virginia Henderson's legacy lives on through the continued work of nursing researchers who conduct their nursing research at the Virginia Henderson Center for Nursing Research at Centra Health in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Virginia Henderson Center for Nursing Research is supported through grants provided by Virginia Henderson's family. Each year, the Virginia Henderson Center for Nursing Research holds a Nursing Research conference to showcase the work of these nursing researchers who carry on the legacy of Virginia Henderson.

Selected publications

Henderson was also author of the 1939 revised edition and coauthor of the 4th (1955) edition. Originally published: V. IV (1963), V. I (1966), V. II (1970), V. III (1972); Philadelphia: JB Lippincott.