Sadie Heath Cabaniss laid the foundation for professional nursing in Virginia. Cabaniss, who held leadership positions in both state and national nursing organizations, led the movement to secure licensing registration for Virginia nurses in 1903. As superintendent of the Old Dominion Training School, Cabaniss molded Virginia's first generation of professional nurses. Her devotion to the cause of public health led her to develop a nurses settlement in Richmond, Virginia and St. Augustine, Florida. She also established the first rural health visiting nurse service in Virginia for Hanover, County.
"It is fortunate indeed for the nursing profession of Virginia that the pioneer in our State was a lady, of rare intelligence, who possessed a character of such outstanding force as to impress itself on the profession not only then but for years to come, who inspired in her pupils a realization of the nobility of their calling, who emphasized the necessity of intelligence and systematic education to insure the best results and who dedicated her own life to laying the foundation for nursing education in our state."
Charles R. Robins, February 15, 1929
Virginia Avenel Henderson's national and international achievements made her the quintessential nurse of the twentieth century. Her professional career was launched in Virginia where she served as the first full-time nursing instructor at Norfolk Protestant School of Nursing and took an active role in the state nurses association. A pioneer nurse educator, Henderson was instrumental in pushing for the inclusion of psychiatric nursing in educational programs in Virginia.
"Henderson through her efforts as an author, researcher, scholar, consultant, and beloved teacher has touched the minds and hearts of thousands of nurses. In reading her writings, in listening to her speak, one is impressed with the clarity of her vision, prose, and insight into the nature of nursing's relations to patients."
Barbara Brodie, October 21, 1988
Agnes Dillon Randolph, a life-long political activist, worked for passage of the act to require registration of nurses. She was instrumental in getting later amendments to the Nurse Practice Act passed including one in 1918 to provide licensed attendants to meet the need resulting from the service of registered nurses in the military during World War I. Randolph led the GNAV committee that raised funds to establish the Sadie Heath Cabaniss Chair of Nursing at the University of Virginia. Using her political influence to advance important health issues, she was the driving force behind the legislation that secured funding to establish statewide tuberculosis sanitariums and clinics. Randolph assisted with the establishment of Piedmont Sanitarium for African Americans, the first of its kind in the United States.
"She was the best lobbyist, male or female, that this generation has seen on Shockoe Hill."
Douglas Southall Freeman, Richmond News Leader, 1934
Carrie Marie Sharp, an active member of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, called a meeting in Petersburg, Virginia on April 11, 1916, to organize the State Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, later the Old Dominion Graduate Nurses Association. Her career in nursing was devoted to her work as a school nurse in Petersburg. She is remembered with respect and affection by the women who were in the Girl Scout Troop she led.
"Miss Sharp is one of the best known school nurses in Virginia."
Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, The Pathfinders, 1929
Ethel Mary Smith, elected secretary-treasurer and inspector of training schools of the Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurses in 1920, established the office as a full-time position and set the standard to be followed by her two successors during the next fifty years. She began a record keeping system for tracking nursing students from enrollment through licensure and renewal. Her annual reports became a much anticipated part of the annual Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia conventions and the tradition she established of reporting on Board of Nursing activities continues to this day. Her legacy to nursing in Virginia are the detailed minutes and statistics she dutifully kept while serving the Board of Nursing that are invaluable to understanding the history of nursing in Virginia.
"So, be it resolved, that as long as the Nursing Profession stands, that she be remembered as a leader-an ideal-by all nurses, for her unfailing loyalty, her endless interest, and her untiring efforts for advancement of the profession."
Memorial Resolution Honoring Miss Smith from District IX of the Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia, 1948
Born and educated in Richmond, Virginia, Adah Belle Samuels Thoms championed equal opportunity for African American women first as a teacher in Virginia and later during her professional nursing career. As President of the Lincoln Hospital Alumnae Association, she hosted the organizational meeting of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in New York City. Thoms campaigned for the enrollment of black nurses by the American Red Cross during World War I and was influential in increasing the number of African American nurses in public health nursing positions.
"Mrs. Thoms' leadership is significant not only for her own race but for those socially minded person of every race who cherish high purposes and unselfish accomplishments that bring promise of better relationships between people."
Lillian Wald, Henry Street Settlement, 1929
A pioneer in public health nursing, Nancy Vance devoted her career to improving the health of school children in Virginia. For over twenty years, Vance traveled the state tirelessly to work with mothers and children. Although her career was cut short by her untimely death in 1942 her spirit lives on through the Nancy Vance Pin Award, an honor bestowed biannually by the Virginia Nurses Association for nurses who exemplify her life and character.
"The fact that Virginia today has one of the best school health programs in the Union is due in no small degree to the indefatigable zeal and unconquerable devotion of Nancy Vance"
Richmond Times-Dispatch January 4, 1942
Phyllis Jean Verhonick, an early leader in advocating clinical nursing research, was recognized internationally for her research in the care of decubitus ulcers and the skin. Following a career in the United States Army Nurse Corps where she was chief of the Department of Nursing at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, she became the first director of nursing research at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
"[Phyllis] is a part of the history of modern nursing research and a greater brand of humor and fun could not have been found. She has left a considerable legacy that the history of nursing and particularly nursing research will not forget."
Gloria Francis, Virginia Nurse, 1978