Virginia Henderson

Virginia Avenel Henderson (November 30, 1897 - March 19, was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and author.

She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the fifth of eight children of Lucy Abbot Henderson and Daniel B. Henderson and a descendant of a long line of scholars and educators.

She graduated from the Army School of Nursing, Washington, D.C., in 1921. She is part of the "Columbia school" of nursing theory, having graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University, with a M.A. degree in nursing education. She died at the Connecticut Hospice. She is buried in the family plot of the churchyard of St. Stephen's Church, Forest, Bedford County, Virginia.

Henderson is famous for a definition of nursing:

"The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge." (Henderson, 1966, p. 15 The nature of nursing. NY: Macmillan.)

The International Council of Nurses presented her with the first Christianne Reimann Prize in June 1985.